Re: [Usability] Re: New "Add to panel" dialog

[Estradin Solaris <estradin gmail com>]

> Docs would refer to them as "The Global Menu"  and
> "The Panel". The 'applets' on the menu all behave like menu items (you
> can navigate between all after a single click on one of them; there's no
> context menu and you use a capplet to configure it).
> "The Panel" holds the applets that don't work as menu items. You can add
> applets to it,

That's precisely what I meant. For clearing up the confusion, I would
suggest calling the menu-like applets 'Global menu extensions' or
'Global menu plugins', and leaving 'applet' for the panel thing. I
think that's the most reasonable approach.

> and advanced users could create extra panels too (though
> I think ideally they shouldn't have to. I don't see people asking for
> extra docks on OS X, for example, even though it has a number of
> usability problems).

It may be a bit off topic, but amazingly enough, some people *do* ask
for extra docks. A couple of utilities out there do that, but I don't
think any of them is actually much used. I think that's a reminiscence
from OS 9. When people first went from OS 9 to OS X thought of the
Dock as a sort of Launchpad, which it isnt, and that's why they wanted
various docks. Anyway, just as independent developers can create
'extra' docks in OS X i'm sure that they would be able to create
'extra' panels or even panel replacements for those unhappy with
having 'only' one panel.

Now again, being realistic, I think the GNOME developers would be
quite reluctant to implement this idea. It looks like taking features
away. And in a way it is... The currrent state of the GNOME panel is
quite a bad case of creeping featurism. IMHO, that is.

Rafa.-