Re: Edges of the screen (Panel suggestion)

[sungod <sungod atdot org>]

Matthias Warkus (mawarkus@t-online.de)'s email of 07/30/99 14:55 said:
>+++ Fri, Jul 30, 1999 at 12:06:06PM -0400 +++
>nelson-gnome@crynwr.com e-mails me. Film at 11. Reply right now, after the 
>break.
>> Which is why pie menus rock.  Right-click, and the menu is under your
>> mouse.  Move out beyond the dead zone, and your target extends to the
>> edges of your screen.  There's even gtk+ code to implement this:
>> http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~0rfelyus/GtkPieMenu/index.html
>> 
>> I'm going to hack this code into gphoto so y'll can see how it works.
>
>Please, please do this!
>
>At some far point in the future, I would like a configurable option in
>Gnome's UI Properties capplet that would make all the menus pie menus.

Is it time to re-suggest "pluggable" user interface modules for GNOME?

* A guy who likes Windows should be able to keep the menus the way they 
are.

* Mawa and nelson and I should be able to unplug those and plug in pie 
menus.

* Mac users should be able to unplug those and plug in a mac-style 
menubar across the top of the screen.

* And when I run gnome apps on my PalmPilot, I should be able to unplug 
those and plug in a module that lets me access the menus by tapping the 
"menu" button on my PalmPilot.

Similar "plugs" could also be made for things like status bars and 
toolbars. Imagine if somebody made a pluggable module that replaced 
dialog boxes with speech synthesis and recognition: all GNOME apps would 
suddenly be easily accessible to blind users! All that's needed is the 
pluggable infrastructure, and this would be possible. Can any other GUI 
claim this yet?

Patch forthcoming in a few years after I teach myself C and GNOME 
internals, or when somebody who already knows them beats me to it. :)


-- 
"True riches only increase." -R. Buckminster Fuller
---------------------------------------------------
sungod@atdot.org              http://blackness.org/