NAME FOR HELP SYSTEM ------------------- It seems to me that UNIX already has the perfect way of describing how documentation is written: MANual. If you are going to go into a long, comprehensive explanation of something, then use the word manual. Manual connotes a final authority that holds a great deal of information. Sure, people sometimes have the attitude of "i don't need the manual," but in the 'real world' when one can't fix a problem, that is the first place one goes.... If one is going to need a quick bit of information (what precisely this form needs, etc.) then use the word TIP The word tip has a VERY positive connotation, people WANT to have tips, and it does not concede defeat. The term 'tool tips' gives one the same connotation, and is already in use so there will be a consistency in verbage of 'help' PIE CHARTS ---------- About Pie charts. VERY quickly in case this has been hacked to death.... First, I think that pie menus would be even EASIER with a bad mouse because fine manipulation is not as necessary. I played THE SIMS with a bad mouse and was perfectly OK with it, while I had trouble working in photoshop with that darned mouse. It seems to me that pie menus DO scale well because if you go by a radial system of 8 menus per level (which you can map to the number pad, incidentally), then after three level you have (8 * 8 * 8 = ) 512 possiblities. If you add a 'back' feature to it (if one of your options is to go to the previous menu), then it would STILL be (7 * 7 * 7 = ) 343 options. It seems to me that radial menus would make the interface: 1) easier to navigate 2) consistent : If all EDIT options were always in the same place, or the system menus or whatever, then the user could easily learn whihc DIRECTION these options are, learning them more easily. The key here is that the menus must be consistent... give 2 of the initial 8 to system, 2 to common gnome tasks, and 4 to application level.... 3) Easier Mnemonically 4) Easer PHYSICALLY: It is easier for people to go a direction rather than stop at a certain place in normal 'drop-down' menu systems 5) Again, if you make a marking system (http://reality.sgi.com/gordo_tor/papers/PhdThesis/PhDthesis.html) then you could make a marking system for all gnome apps Sorry if this is all a rehash, but I have seen a great deal of info on pie menus of late and I am deeply impressed by them. If nothing else, THE SIMS is a great example of good user interface that uses pie menus. Just my two cents. Thanks, delmar watkins
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