RE: ANNOUNCE: Style Guide available for review.

[Paul Hepworth <phepworth s-vision com>]

> Yeah OK, but editing the config files is cumbersome.  Perhaps what you
> 
> say below is best.
> 
>  > But my preference is to have all apps sport a menubar the first
> time
>  > they are run, but ALL menubars may be torn-off (and they convert to
>  > pinned NeXT-like menus).  If I want to re-dock it, I drag it to the
>  > menu-bar are.  Likewise all toolbars may be floated or docked.  (A
> menu
>  > is just a type of tool palette;  menus and icon tool palettes
> should
>  > even be able to share a line (be docked side by side)).
>  > Then, the *application* saves the state of the menu (and toolbars)
> in
>  > whatever way the application uses for storing settings (the user
> doesn't
>  > care).
>  > The next time I run the application, it has the menu and toolbar
>  > configuration I left it with.
>  > 
>  > This way, if I'm a die-hard NeXT-menu guy, I need only drag the
> menu bar
>  > off the app the first time I run it.  (I.e. once ever per
> application.)
> 
> I like it.  I think your idea makes the most sense.  The only thing to
> 
> keep in mind is that all applications need to conform to it.  This
> idea is better than NeXT and the Mac, because both menus are
> incorporated.
> 
> Another thought on NeXT menus.  What do you think about the menus
> blinking maybe twice after the application starts to indicate where
> all the menus may be.  The thought here is that if the desktop is
> cluttered and a user starts an app that they haven't run in a while
> then they will need a little help finding the menu that they pulled
> off 6 months ago.  So the application starts.  At the same time the
> main frame appears and the torn-off menu.  After maybe a .5 second
> pause the menu title bar blinks or flashes in some way.  Perhaps the
> color is XORed once or twice to alert the user of the location of the
> small menu bar now on the desktop.  What do you think?
> 
Good idea.  Perhaps the suggestion that floating menus/tools disappear
when the parent window doesn't have the focus is an even better idea.


Paul