RE: GWP and 'the foot'

["Braden N. McDaniel" <braden shadow net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J. Patrick Narkinsky [mailto:patrick@narkinsky.ml.org]
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 1998 12:53 AM
> To: gnome-list@gnome.org
> Cc: gnome-gui-list@gnome.org
> Subject: GWP and 'the foot'
>
>
> I just had the opportunity to check out the latest sources for GWP from
> CVS -- first off, for those of you who haven't taken a look lately, do so.
> These guys have been coding like crazy.
>
> One thing that they did which I REALLY like is they put a Macintosh-like
> 'gnome foot' icon on the left-most side of their menubar with some common
> utility functions under it.
>
> For example, this menu in GWP has:
> 	About...
> 	Preferences...
> 	----
> 	Quit
>
> I REALLY like this as an UI idea.

So do I, but might it be better to use the application icon rather than the
G?

>  First, it clears up a lot of the
> ambiguity about what to do with the "File" menu in applications where it
> is not appropriate (e.g. games).

Cooper makes a good point on this issue in _The Essentials of User Interface
Design_. "File" is awfully generic. In fact, the notion of a "file" is
really an implementation thing. For most applications (a notable exception
being a file manager), one could think of a more appropriate name for the
menu generally dubbed "File". In a word processor, for example, "Document"
would be more appropriate.

Braden

<http://www.endoframe.com>