Re: Applications Unnecessary?

[Greg K Nicholson <greg gkn me uk>]

> This design has not thought of the toolbars but only of the idea to introduce a command line interface but much more intelligent, simle and beautiful than a terminal.

OK. I couldn't see this from just the one picture.

I have a similar idea myself. The two-paragraph version: the user
types the name of either an object (a document, person, disk…) or an
action into a command line (which is presented like a browser's
location bar). There's a drop-down list showing available options
(visible as soon as the command line is focused) and objects/actions
are matched like Gnome Do does. After pressing Enter, the user chooses
from a list of actions (if they entered an object) or objects (if they
entered an action) in the same way. If another parameter is needed,
this is then chosen in the same way. This is intended to be like
natural-language parsing but more structured.

Commands (combinations of object + action + parameter) that are deemed
the most relevant (for this user) are shown as toolbar icons to the
left of the command line (right for RTL). Closely-related groups of
slightly-less-relevant commands are grouped in drop-down menus after
these icons (but before the command line).

>> The simple solution:
>>
>> (1) Reorganise all the menus so that the menu name actually relates to
>> each menu item, and all the items in each menu relate to each other
>
> That would be good compromise but only a compromise.

It's not a compromise: it's only the first part of the solution.

>> (2) Add pretty, friendly icons to each menu title (if you can't draw
>> it, it shouldn't be a menu name)
>
> It is like that now and it loks very busy. Icons should appear only for
> actions that perform operatins on physical devices.

The menu titles—not the menu items. Toolbar items (see step 3) without
icons are quite unusual and (I think) would be less inviting for new
users. Icons on menu items is a different issue.

>> (3) Fold all the menus into the toolbar, as toolbar buttons with
>> expansion-arrows
>
> Not good IMO.

Well, this is the crux of the solution: I'm merging the menu bar into
the toolbar. Is there a problem this would lead to that I've not
addressed? Or do you simply prefer another solution (and if so, why)?

>> (4) Make the labels of the least important items (the ones at the end
>> of the toolbar) hide if the window isn't wide enough to show them all
>> (5) Require this in the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines
>
> Agree here.