Re: Submenu navigation

[Gustavo Joćo Alves Marques Carneiro <ee96090 fe up pt>]

  IMHO:
    1- A simple timeout (like windows) is enough;
    2- Submenus should always be opened vertically centered around its
parent menu item, so that the pointer has to move less to reach a
menu. Like this:
          
           item1 
           item2
parentitem item3
           item4
           item5

instead of this:

parentitem item1
           item2
           item3
           item4
           item5

    3- Something needs to be done about menus that don't fit inside the
screen:
	a) split the menu into smaller menus, with a "More >" item;
	b) implement scrolling, like Window Maker, Enlightenment, etc.


On Tue, 23 May 2000, Nils Barth wrote:

> Hi navigators-of-deep-submenus
> 
> In pursuit of big and better ways of improving submenus, I'd like to
> Improve Submenu Navigation, as per GTK+ TODO list.
> 
> After futzing with a Mac for a while, I determined that they handle
> navigation thusly:
> (the attached picture should help)
> When the mouse pointer leaves a menu item with a submenu, a little
> triangle is drawn between the exit point (p0) and the lower left
> corner of the submenu (p1), and the respective corner (p2)
> (assuming that you exit the menuitem at the bottom and the submenu is
> to your right, otherwise the upper-left, lower right, etc.)
> 
> While the mouse is in this triangle, the submenu stays up.
> When the mouse leaves the triangle, or after a timeout (1/2 or so --
> no stopwatch, sorry), the triangle disappears and the submenu
> collapses.
> 
> This is, I think, the Right Way (SM) of doing submenu navigation:
> * If you leave the menuitem in the direction of the submenu, the
>   submenu stays up.
> * If you leave the menuitem NOT in the direction of the submenu,
>   say if you're going up or down a menu item, the submenu dies.
> * It's a very temporary arrangement, and thus only consumes resources
>   when you're actually navigating.
> 
> I'm asking for feedback on two items:
> 
> (1) Do people agree that this is the right way of doing things?
>     Concerns, suggestions?
> (2) How should I implement this?
> 
> Re: (2)
> Currently, I have modified gtkmenuitem.c:gtk_menu_shell_leave_notify()
> so that when you leave a menuitem with a submenu, it determines what
> kind of triangle should put up.
> I'm thinking of also actually making the triangle popup here.
> For the navigation triangle, I was thinking of deriving an object from
> GtkBin and just drawing it (er, transparently), then monitoring it
> for:
> cursor exits (in which case it dies);
> cursor moving across the center diagonal (i.e., outside the triangle),
> in which case it also dies;
> timeout (in which case it yet again dies).
> 
> (a) This is actually a private object, since I can't imagine it being
> useful outside submenu navigation -- is this a problem?
> (b) I'm not too familiar with how GTK draws stuff/makes
> windows/widgets internally -- is what I have described above
> reasonable?
> 
> If anyone has suggestions/guidance, I'm welcome to it.
> 
> 

-- 
Gustavo J.A.M. Carneiro
[linuxdeec.fe.up.pt/~ee96090]