Re: Revisiting App Menu

[Soren Harward <soren cinternet net>]

I see the transition from [insert previous GUI here] to gnome as being
like getting a new car: you could do everything with your eyes closed with
the old one, but you decided it was too old and you got a new (hopefully
better) one.  Even though there are little things that are different, like
where the radio, climate, and seat controls are, every MAJOR thing is
still in place; the gas pedal is still the long thin one on the right and
there is still a whell in front of you.  Within a few days, you adapt to
everything else.

If someone takes the time to make the switch to gnome--or if they've never
had a system of their own and this one comes with gnome (world
domination!)--then they will approach it like "okay, different UI,
different feel."  This is a wholly good thing, and one we should
capitalize on.  If we wanted a seamless transition, we'd just duplicate
the Win95 or Mac or whatever UI they just came from, and the point of
gnome would be defeated.  What we should do instead is say "okay, we'll
make it similar, but fix some of the stupid things that other UIs do to
make it better."  The major pieces, like the steering wheel, pedals, and
turn signal, will all be there and people will know what do do with them.
The other little things they will adapt to.

In short: I don't think "program configuration" and "quit" belong in a
"file" menu, but rather a separate "program" menu.  You think anyone is
going to panic, FDISK linux, and return scared to Win/Mac just because
they couldn't find the "quit" option the first place they looked.

Another idea: how about a short "tutorial" for gnome--approachable from a
few levels like "newbie," "familiar with computers," and "power user"--to
acclimate people quickly to the switch?  I know MS and Apple do these
things for their UIs.  I'd be willing to help design it.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
                Soren Harward               | Windows 95/98 DOES come
 Internet Information Systems Administrator | with a tool to recover
               Cinternet, Inc.              | from Registry
 Voice: 891-1228        soren@cinternet.net | corruption.
      http://www.cinternet.net/~soren/      | It's called 'FDISK'.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, Carl Thompson wrote:

>
>
>On 8 Jul 1998, Preben Randhol wrote:
>>  ---------------------
>>  | Gnome  File  Help |
>>  -|-----|-------------
>>   |     --------
>>   |Preferences |
>>   |About       | 
>>   |Exit        |
>>   |------------|
>> 
>> 
>> You propose something like this right? I think this is a good solution
>> personally.
>
>
>I see two problems:
>
>1. New converts aren't going to know to look under the Gnome menu to exit
>   the program.  I think the extra menu will throw some people off.  New
>   Linux users aren't stupid, but they often are very used to doing things
>   in a particular way.
>
>2. Users may eventually wish to use programs that aren't part of Gnome.
>   These programs will almost certainly continue using the "standard" menu
>   layout so, if we change the Gnome layout from this standard, we will be
>   causing more UI inconsistency headaches for users, which is the exact
>   opposite of what we intend.  Remember, Gnome apps will run in a heter-
>   ogeneuos environment; it's not realistic to believe users will only use
>   Gnome applications.
>