[HIG] Open HIG bugs - unadulterated comments

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

These are my comments on the HIG's open bug reports. The first few I've
not categorized.

46523 - The use of the acronym MIME is confusing
  "Type" should suffice for where type is meant. MIME has been appropriated
  for file typing although it was designed for email. I don't think that even
  an email program needs to use the acronym.

70122 - Contractions of language confusing
  I try to avoid them in formal writing. The most common (all?) contractions
  in English are of negations or forms of the verb "to be". Both of these
  often can be avoided with a benefit to the writing. So perhaps the HIG
  should suggest a reconsideration when a contraction might be used.

73619 Hiding notebook tabs
  Hiding? How about "removing"? However, suppose the user can't change
  some property, but may view it nonetheless.

85606 close buttons are being implemented in inconsistent ways in utility
      windows
  The Close button should burn in hell.

88433 Allow "Rollback" of preference change
& 95110 Recommendation for undo/revert/cancel/etc. in prefs dialogs
  Undo should be present on all of the instant-apply windows. I believe
  it was a grave error not to require this before switching to instant-
  apply.

  A "Default(s)" button should be provided wherever there actually is a
  default setting. (The parenthetical 's' should not be shown: "Default"
  for a page with one option and "Defaults" for a page with more than one.

  Help, Undo, and (as appropriate) Default(s) should appear on every single
  page of a notebook. Help should open the help browser to information
  for the particular page. Undo should only undo actions performed on
  its page since the window was first opened; minimizing should not clear
  the undo history, but closing should. Likewise, Default(s) applies only
  to the page on which it appears.

  The Close button should burn in hell.

93407 recent documents menu stuff should be more specific
  On Windows this number of docs is an app-specfic setting - default of 4.
  The placement (inline or Open Recent submenu) is also an app-specific
  setting - default of inline.

97174 Shortcut for logging out
  I thought the Alt+F4 thing was a Windows bug.
  Should whatever pops up on Ctrl+Alt+Del have a logout option?

HIG tidiness:
  75678 Utility Windows should/could have Help buttons
    I've lost track of what's being called what.
  85604 Need to specify focus rules for utility windows
    Really, the HIG needs to specify a lot more about WM interaction
    if programmers are going to read it or even be given designs
    based on it. Btw, the EWMH needs a _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE for alerts
    and probably more. This is a nasty area.
  93071 Needs revision of the ellipsis recommendation
    I think the best thing to do here is give more examples.
    In particular some that depend on how the app handles the command.
    Consider these windows:
    +---------------------------+        +---------------------------+
    | Find...                [v]|        |[X] Find - AppName      [v]|
    +---------------------------+        +---------------------------+
    |                           |        |                           |
    |  Word: [_______________]  |        |  Word: [_______________]  |
    |                           |        |                           |
    |     [ Cancel ][  Find  ]  |        |               [  Find  ]  |
    +---------------------------+        +---------------------------+
    Here the item should be "Find..."     Here it should be "Find" because
    because the user:                     the user:
     1) types what to find,                1) types what to find,
     2) presses Find,                      2) presses Find,
    and the dialog closes.                and the window stays open until
                                          the user clicks the [X] button
                                          in the window frame.
    (Yes, both of them suck. Just note the differences in appearance and
     interaction.)
  97272 Conflicting recommendations for shortcut for the "Send To.." menuitem
    IIRC, Ctrl+M is the Windows standard for this. (Think M for Mail . . .
    or is it murder?)

These are mostly related to MDI:
  72101 Hig should specify a tab implementations 
    AFAICT, this is only a problem because of tabbed MDI.
    Die, MDI! Die!
  87764 Of tabs, MDI and Window menus
    Die, MDI! Die!
  92121 window (or document) menu problem
    I'd rather the possiblity of this just be removed.

These involve code:
  90314 Resize handle in GNOME applications
    Gtk+ now supports this and it is on by default. This will affect some
    status bar layouts and needs to be noted.
  91374 Dialogs should not have type "popup"
    No shit. Seth, learn to use the frickin' toolkit.
  91726 Users should be able to control cursor blink
    Anyone implementing a cursor should use the value provied in
    the XSettings "gtk-cursor-blink" and "gtk-cursor-blink-time".

These should have dependencies on another bug:
  76765 Help->About <appname> not easily doable right now
    We could leave this as just Help->About.
  86367 Context menus positioning
    We need to convince people that GnuSTEP-style menus are the way to go
    and get Gtk+ to support this. This should depend on a Gtk+ bug report.
  93033 Have recent files on the toolbar
    This should depend on a bug report for actually getting the widget
    into Gtk+. Incidently, I see the widget as being the option-menu
    equivalent of a normal menu's "conditional cascading menu"

These should be RESOLVED as FIXED:
  71867 Advise regarding toggable menu options
    However, I see other bugs in the section - e.g., what the heck is a
    radio _button_ item?
  73618 Clarify the spirit of (exit) confirmations
  76761 File->Close should be Ctrl-W, not Alt-F4
  91360 Undefined term on section 3.1.3

These should be RESOLVED as NOTABUG:
  91361 Bugzilla: Compponents are unclear 
    Why is this a HIG bug?
  92493 RFE: application should have "Submit Bug Report" like GNOME1
  96397 No keyboard shortcut for "Save All"
    Nor should there be. Die, MDI! Die!
  97271 Shortcut recommendations conflict with GTK2 Emacs keybinding 
    Aww, darn. Guess what? Emacs keybindings suck ass. Get over it.

I have no comment on these remaining:
  73692 Recommend instant apply preference pages over non-instant apply
  73693 Add more detail to assistants section
  73696 Update button order
  73879 Dialogs in screenshots need access keys
  77017 Above or Beside: Which when?
  77019 Fonts and Pango
  77356 HIG should specify specific rules for how nautilus views
        should be implemented
  78276 'Stop' button keybinding
  78704 Should specify window manager expectations
  79084 Need to review Ctrl+Shift+<key> recommendations
  80255 HIG should mention keyboard shortcuts for navigation
  85121 Menubar visibility requirement is overzealous
  91409 Gnome example icons not transparent in PDF
  91480 Long lines => hard to read
  93098 Reference to "Section 2.3" which does not exist
  93106 Tables 3.1 - 3.5 missing in PDF version
  93107 Figure 3.16 does not conform to the HIG
  94910 Zoom accelerators
  95773 GtkDialog border width setting makes dialogs look stupid?