RE: Reprise of the panel layout proposal

["Jared White" <jwhite sonic net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org
> [mailto:gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org]On Behalf Of Jonas De Vuyst
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 4:43 PM

<snip>
> If the menu bar is only going to contain two menus then that's a lot of
> wasted screen estate. I'd much rather see a task list merged in the
> menu.
</snip>

and

<snip>
> I don't like panels that don't use the entire border. They look funny
> and when maximizing a window (which is especially handy when on low-res)
> there's this useless part of the desktop still visible.
</snip>

How about making the main menu, running tasks menu, and the workspace pager
into tabs? In other words, instead of having huge bars all over the place
with buttons on them, just have little tabs that look like they're hanging
onto the edge of the screen. When someone clicks on a tab, the tab would
"slide out" to reveal a "menu" or "panel" connected to it. In fact, make it
almost like a small drawer sliding out that contains widgets ala the drawers
of Mac OS X. Is this too far out or does anyone else like the idea? I can do
a simple graphical mockup if anyone's interested.

I think Gnome really needs to starting distancing itself in terms of
graphical UI design from other OSes or desktop environments. I like your
ideas, James, but I feel like they're a bit too similar to existing Mac OS
or Windows paradigms. Not that there is anything "wrong" with that, but
automatically assuming any UI designs that deviate from those existing
paradigms are strange or confusing or undesirable is a REALLY bad thing,
IMHO.

Any other ideas, folks?

Jared