Re: GUI terminology

[nils <n p sun com>]

Kenny Graunke wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 04:49:35PM +0200 or thereabouts, Christian Rose wrote:
> > On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Calum Benson wrote:
> > > FYI, the recently-published (draft) GNOME documentation styleguide
> > > contains a list of standard GUI terminology to be used in GNOME
> > > documentation... I hope it goes without saying that we should generally
> > > use the same terminology within our user interfaces where possible :)
> > >
> > > http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/wordlist.html
> >
> > This wordlist certainly looks promising! Whoever wrote it (Dan?) needs a
> > big, big thanks.
> >
> > From a quick look at it:
> >
> > * applet / panel applet
> > Some time ago, someone on usability-list mentioned that usability studies
> > showed that the "applet" terminology was confusing (confusion with Java
> > applets). "Panel applet" was suggested for those cases where the context
> > could be uncertain (i.e if you right-click on the panel, it would only
> > need to be "applet", but in other cases "panel applet"). The wordlist
> > does not mention this, maybe it should?
>
> My favorite: Panel Gadgets. An "applet" doesn't really imply anything to me.
> Perhaps a Java applet. A "panel gadget" doesn't really imply anything specific
> either, but it makes me think "neat little things I can put on my panel to do
> cool stuff", a much clearer picture, at least for me.
>
> Also. That applets menu *has* to go - the entire "Add to Panel" thing really
> needs to die.

agreed

>
>
> http://jimbob.myip.org/sshots/2001_04_29_035028_shot.jpg
>
> Something like this should replace it. You can select an applet and add it
> to your panel. the "Add to Panel" button would change to "Remove from Panel"
> if you selected one that was already added. Now, this would have to accomodate
> multiple copies of panel applets somehow - it's not perfect. But it's a lot
> better than having to go to:
> Main Menu->Panel->Add to Panel->Applets->Clock->Another Clock
> ...and then realizing that I picked the entirely wrong clock and have to right
> click on it, select remove, go back through the menus, and pick "Clock" again.
>
> With this dialog, you can select a gadget, see a picture of what it looks like
> on the right, set up the most common options, and -then- add it to the panel.
> If you want the rest of the configuration options, you can click
> "More Properties..." to bring up the gadget's configuration dialog.

In addition, I would suggest creating a new application (integrated with nautilus/
ControlCenter?) that could deal with the management of multiple panels and
their child objects (panel gadgets, menus and the like). The dialog you
propose could then be a part of the Panel Manager app?

Nils