Re: My Little Wish List for Gnome

[Quantum Seep <qseep berserker lensflare com>]

This would probably not fit in with the way menus work in GNOME, since it
uses one file for all the desktop settings.  Nevertheless, take a look at
it and see if it doesn't fix some of the issues we've been discussing.

Here I present an example system default desktop configuration file,
showing menu entries.  Each menu entry has a logical name, and a location
specified relative to the other menu entries.

----------

[Internet]
location=/Internet
type=menu

[Browsers]
location=[Internet]/Browsers
type=menu

[Netscape]
location=[Browsers]/Netscape
type=command
command=/usr/local/bin/netscape

[Grail]
location=[Browsers]/Grail
type=command
command=/usr/local/bin/grail

[Editors]
location=/Editors
type=menu

[vi]
location=[Editors]/vi
type=command
command=/usr/bin/vi

[ReadMail]
location=[Internet]/Read Mail
type=CORBA
name=/GNOME/mail/user/box
method=view

-------

(Notice the neat little CORBA invocation that uses the Name Server.)  This
system default menu has two submenus: Internet and Editors.  Internet has
a submenu for Browsers and for Mail.  Each of these menus has some
application menu items.

Now suppose the user doesn't like the Browsers being under the "Internet"
menu, and doesn't want the "Grail" item to appear at all?  Here is the
user's personal desktop file:

----------

[Browsers]
location=/Browsers

[Grail]
show=no

----------

Simple, eh?  The Internet menu will still be there, with the option "Read
Mail," but the Browsers menu will be at the root, and with only the
"Netscape" command.

This has the advantage that if the administrator adds commands, they will
be made immediately available to the end user, who can then chose to move
or hide them at will.  Of course an option could allow hidden items to
appear as grayed out so they could be rearranged or re-enabled.

/-------- Quantum Seep, qseep@iname.com ---
  "His funny bone's connected to the M-bone"
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