Style: Universal vs. GNOME-specific

[John R Sheets <dusk smsi-roman com>]

Does anyone have an opinion on whether the style guide should
differentiate between universal UI issues that could
(potentially) apply to _any_ UI but that GNOME officially
endorses, and issues that can only apply to GNOME?

For example, a lot of the menu styles are quite common among all
UI's, things such as the File and Help menu-placement, Quit/Exit
being the last item in the File menu, etc.  These would be the
low-profile (yet still every bit as important) issues that most
UI programmers should already be familiar with, but may need a
little clarification about where GNOME stands.

The GNOME-specific styles would be things like whether or not to
have a foot/app menu for the common menu items that don't really
belong under "File", or how to handle keybindings or CORBA or the
Properties dialog(s), and would most likely be issues that
programmers new to GNOME would not be familiar with.  So put
those issues in a separate section.

The point to separating these out is to help make comprehension
of the style guide quicker & easier.  When you open it up for the
first time, you skim through the Universal styles, nod your head,
uh-huh, uh-huh, and then know to start really paying attention
when you hit the GNOME section.  If you want to know what make
GNOME "GNOME", you know right where to look.

Also, once the Universal section is written, it will pretty much
stay the same.  It will contain the basics of good UI design,
which won't change.  The GNOME-specific styles however will be
subject to change, as new things are added (e.g. pie menus) and
as GNOME matures and settles.

Am I making sense?  Does anyone have a good reason why this is
_not_ a good idea?

John