Hello Collin,
As far as I remember, menu icons are disabled on OSX in order to
conform
with Apple's UI guidelines that favor text-only menus over additional
icons.
So while there might be no technical issue with enabling icons for OSX
too
(I know that it worked years ago, when they were enabled by default),
I
think that the main reason for disabling them is the "native OSX user"
who
is used to text-only menus from all other applications and might find
icons
distractive.
From my point of view, cross-platform should not mean "has to look the
same
on all platforms", but rather "has to work on all supported platforms,
but
not violate its standard UI policies".
I understand that menu icons are a rather minor "violation" and I
would not
mind if they were re-enabled. But if there is a definite decision to
make,
my vote would go to not enabling them again. Personally, I find icons
in
menus distractive, if recognizable at all at such small sizes, so I
eventually always fall back to reading the text (this also holds true
for
context menus, where icons are still enabled). Menu icons, for me, are
just
visual clutter that take away screen space (I am often working on a 13
inch
MBP).
Just my .02.
Best,
Johannes
Von Samsung Mobile gesendet
-------- Ursprüngliche Nachricht --------
Von: Collin Anderson
Datum:30.07.2015 12:53 (GMT+01:00)
An: KiCad Developers
Betreff: [Kicad-developers] Can we enable menu icons on OS X?
Can anyone explain why menu icons are enabled on all platforms except
OS X?
I've looked through the menuhelper.h code and the CMake build files,
and all
I can find is reference to it being disabled on OS X by default, but
the
reason why is not given anywhere I can find.
I've been using KiCad for months on OS X and I force the menu icons on
every
time, and there are no issues. They are very helpful from a usage
standpoint and beyond that, it is the interface I'm used to when I use
KiCad
in Debian, and my coworkers in in Windows. It's both annoying and
distressing to suddenly lose all those visual cues but only on the OS
X
platform. It would be understandable if there was some sort of issue,
or
they didn't work right on OS X, but that's not the case.
Regardless, as it stands now, KiCad's interface is not platform
agnostic,
which is something that ought to be a priority for any software
claiming to
be cross-platform.
Can we simply comment out, or better, remove, the line in the root
CMakeLists file that goes out of its way to disable menus, but only if
__APPLE__? I'll even do it myself and make a merge quest, if its
simply a
matter of no one having the time.
I, like many users I suspect, find I rely on icons and visual cues
much more
than actual text of menu and contextual menu items. I have no choice
but to
build KiCad (which takes a long time on my machine) if I want the
latest dev
build in a usable (and truly cross platform) state. I DO do his
regularly,
but sometimes I do need it quick and it would be nice if I could take
advantage of Adam Wolf's generously provided nightly builds, but since
the
default build settings disable menu icons, it largely becomes time
spent
discovering how much I actually rely on the menu icons, rather than
spent on
electronic design.
If I've missed something, and there IS a good reason for breaking
KiCad's
cross platform consistency, I'd love to know - I'll see if I can fix
the
issue and file a merge proposal. And if I can't I'll at least add
that
reason in the comments around the relevant code, since it requires
justification (in my humble opinion, anyway, for what little that is
worth
;) )
--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Isaac Asimov
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