Re: [Usability] Panel-dockable menubar now possible?

[Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn charter net>]

On Tue, 2004-06-08 at 18:18 +0200, Christian Neumair wrote:
> Am So, den 06.06.2004, 16:34 Uhr +0200 schrieb Thorsten Wilms:
> > On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 10:20:19AM -0400, Dave Ahlswede wrote:
> > > 
> > > Maybe it would work to have the menubar shown at the top switched by a mouse 
> > > click or keyboard activity in a window, instead of window focus when the WM is
> > > in sloppy focus mode, and maybe there could be a time delay as well(such as if a 
> > > window is focused for ten seconds, then its menubar gets switched up, but if it's
> > > just moused over for half a second, the menubar would stay low)
> > 
> > Such are impossible (or at least very hard) to get right.
> > Would also make for a hard to understand behaviour / unconsistent feel.
> > (I use sloppy focus myself.)
> > 
> > Oh, and personaly, I use only one panel at the top with main menus, window 
> > selector, notoification area, virtual desktop thingy ... There is enough 
> > useful stuff to be put in panels to make good use of screen edges.
> > 
> > Not to forget that the MacOS menu model is not exactly easy to understand.
> > Can be quite confusing to have the radical menu changes, or to be in a app 
> > without any window left.
> 
> I think if that is an option at all, it would have to be well-considered
> and be based on a new, not yet planned API. From what I can see without
> knowing the MacOSish way, such an API would have to allow the desktop
> environment optionally (!) to decide where a main menubar should be put.
> Else we end up with broken apps outside GNOME. Shouldn't be too hard,
> since currently (if I'm taken right) GtkAction/GtkUIManager forces the
> application to abstract the menu structure and function from the actual
> widgets. We'd have to force it to expose a GtkActionGroup and
> descriptive menu string that can be merged into a desktop-wide desktop
> bar.
> So from what I can see the GtkUIManager thingie basically allows it, but
> it may cost a lot of effort to have a clean polished API and I'm not
> sure whether we want this at all, or you just want it for the sake of
> cloning MacOS ;).
> But of course, you're allowed and supposed to put your idea forward,
> file bugs and in general mock devels with your vision :).

Personally, I'd like it because I've played around with KDE's and
Amiga's implementations and enjoyed it. It help save a little screen
space on a low-res display, and it makes window-hungry programs like
spatial file managers (which I love, but tend to overclutter with) feel
a little more under control. :)

Anyhow, I understand it's something of a major paradigm shift. It'd
still be nice to play around with.