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Re: [Ayatana] Global menu in Oneiric Ocelot (11.10)

2011/5/18 Henrik Peytz <henrik.peytz@xxxxxxxxx>
> [...] and dragging the window will be problematic if the menus span the entirety of the window due to menu-overflow or resizing the window too small. 

Agreed, it was the first thing I thought about when I read the suggestion.

> Or have a menu-toggle-button next to the other window-controls (close, maximize etc.) so the user can decide on a per-window-basis whether he wants the menus visible or not.

This on the other hand was highly interesting. This together with the title and menu merging with the top panel when an application is maximized would probably solve the most problems. Consider when you use nautilus, I at least never uses the menu since I only use it for browsing and lots of menu entries have keyboard shortcuts. But when you use a program like GIMP you always want to be able to reach the menu. If the setting is saved per application this could work really good. It would also leave it up to the developers how they want to design their menus, because when your not moving the menu up to the top panel you can choose to create menu buttons as Opera and Firefox 4 features. This would leave much more freedom to the developers.

Or as an alternative can menu buttons ala Opera (can't call it firefox style since Opera actually was first with it) get created automatically and be an entry in the title bar. But what would cause other problems, e.g. the developers actually creating their own menu button and in that case it could get confusing.

2011/5/18 Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>
>  Actually it's the several non-maximized windows case where a global menu shines regarding space efficiency, as you don't save only one menu bar area, but several.

This is of course true but that leads us to the question whether it's more important to have an efficient workflow or save 24px vertical space? For myself is the ease of access a higher priority, since an ineffective work flow will get you frustrated and slow down your effective work time.


2011/5/18 Henrik Peytz <henrik.peytz@xxxxxxxxx>
Or have a menu-toggle-button next to the other window-controls (close, maximize etc.) so the user can decide on a per-window-basis whether he wants the menus visible or not.
I think auto-hiding menus would be bad since it's possible for a user to want to retain an overview of available menus, even if that particular application is not in focus. This is particularly true when learning a new application and the user doesn't remember all the options available to him.

Moving the menu to the titlebar is also a solution, though people will probably complain a about the clutter, and dragging the window will be problematic if the menus span the entirety of the window due to menu-overflow or resizing the window too small.


2011/5/18 Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>

Actually it's the several non-maximized windows case where a global menu shines regarding space efficiency, as you don't save only one menu bar area, but several.


It would be an interesting _experiment_ to render non-maximized windows sans menus, and have the menu slide in inside a window, once it gets and for as long as it has focus. Or to avoid movement, switch between titles and menus in the titlebars.


--
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/


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