Re: Menus

["Khimenko Victor" <gnome-gui khim sch57 msk ru>]

5-Nov-98 13:46 you wrote:
> [snip configurable menu idea]
> Yes, that is what I mean.

>> In fact this working solution you could see in M$ Office 97! Or in
>> M$ Developer Studio 97 (or 98).

> For some reasons I do not use M$ when I can prevent it. So I didn't
> know they already had it! (partially, then) One reason more to put it
> into Gnome (sidestep to another discussion: I think we should define
> the Gnome UI as a solid model, then use from other UI's what we can
> use).

In fact for now M$ Office 97/M$ Developer Studio 9[78] is ideal to try this
concept "at work". There are a lot of small glitches (Why is "menu bar" not
standard toolbar but slightly other beast ? Why will "menu bar" be "window wide"
when docked to top side but not to bottom side ? Why it's not possible to create
new drop-down menu while possible to delete drop-down menu ? Sometimes menu will
be altered by M$ Word (M$ Excel, MS PowerPoint, etc) itself and if menu is
edited then glitches are possible: for example in "default layout" there are
menu item "Save as HTML..." in menu "File"; this item will be replaced with
"Save as Word Document..." if you are editing .html but if you'll move both
"Save as..." and "Save as HTML..." in other menu then in "HTML mode" menu item
"Save as Word Document..." will be added in menu "File" at random place while
"Save as HTML..." in other menu will not be deleted...) but it's VERY
configurable anyway. Worth to see (not for duplication, of course, there are
some nasty things). Even if you hate M$ there are few good ideas to borrow.

> [snip cut-and-paste your own menus-&-toolbars]

>> In fact to me this looks like [almost] ideal solution of problem but
>> this crashes :-(( It's possible to do sich thing reliable at all ?
>> If answer is "yes" then it's will be [almost] ideal solution. And if
>> toolbar will be "dockable" not only to sides of main window but to
>> sides of screen as well you'll be able to get Macintosh style if
>> you'll wish...

> Of course the answer is ``Yes''. It is a very heavy configuration for
> a complete set of applications (define ``comlete'' later). It will
> require careful study to see what an application can change in the
> configuration (if an application can configure itself, it will need a
> button (or anything configurable) for that). Also, it might be wise to
> have an additional application for configuration (global config,
> primarily), which in turn will configure itself. There will have to be
> default configurations.

IMO there are should be few default configurations (not to much but few).
Something like "MS Windows-style", "Mac-style", "Next-style" and few GNOME
own styles. Of course not only look but feel also should be alterable (what
button is used to work with menu -- left? right? or even middle?) but it's
inependant axis of configurability.

> The task is not trivial, but definitely feasible.

I'm not 100% sure that this task is solvable. In M$ Office 97 all works
[almost] fine till you'll try to embed CorelDraw picture or even MS Excel
spreadshit when you have heavily modified menu/toolbars :-((