Re: [HIG] Re: [Nautilus-list] Toggable menu options

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

[Dropping this from nautilus-list, this is more of a general usability
issue]


mån 2002-02-18 klockan 18.01 skrev Owen Taylor:
> > > > > "Show Hidden Files", by itself,  with no checkbox next to it, is 
> > > > > ambiguous.
> > > > 
> > > > I agree, but IMHO a gtk+ theme that doesn't display a toggable menu
> > > > option easily identifiable as a toggable menu option, whatever the
> > > > state, is broken.
> > > 
> > > Well, I'm afraid that no themes display check menu items in the off
> > > state these days... the GTK+ core doesn't allow it (It's very hard to
> > > do this in an attractive manner and in fact, in a matter that makes it
> > > clear that what you are drawing is the unselected state, not the
> > > indicator for the selected state.)
> > 
> > Is this new in GTK+ 1.3.x? My GTK+ 1.2 theme displays unselected
> > toggable menu options in a clearly different way from other menu
> > options.
> 
> GTK+-1.2 had the amazingly poor design that the app could set on
> the menuitem whether the unchecked state was displayed or not.

Admittedly poor design. ;-)


> > If this is new, I think this is a regression since feedback in advance
> > that a menu option is toggable is quite important, for all the reasons
> > people have already mentioned.
> 
> Suprisingly, other operating systems and toolkits seem to get by
> without unchecked indicators.

True, but on the other hand there are some very convincing arguments
from people with a usability background that favor a clearly
identifiable unchecked state. This is probably an area that GTK+/GNOME
may have the chance to handle better than other toolkits instead of
reimplementing their mistakes.

In any case, this is probably something that should be decided upon by
the usability people and/or the HIG group and written into the HIG, and
then implemented in a distant future version GTK+ (since I understand
that it will require an API change).

I added http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71867 so that it won't
be forgotten in list mail. :)


Christian