[Ayatana] Fwd: Killing Menu Bars

Actually, I added a (extremely rough) mock up of what gcalc might look like. Basically, the most commonly used options ought to be (categorically) available the easiest. In a tool like a calculator that doesn't have a lot going on as far as options its pretty easy to put these on a row of mode or view buttons. everything else can be found in the 'gearbox' options menu. Roughly like so:

This translates very well in simple apps, and with more work, coul d work well for more complex apps as well.

With the keyboard shortcuts, particularly the insert command, ironically enough I'm using chromium, which does not allow for that command. Presumably we could still allow similar behavior for common key presses of that sort, and honestly some of it will be taken care of by a clean shearing of commands that are used for actual action (i.e., in a file browser relate to actual browsing instead of slightly less needed interface editing like "reset view to defaults" or history clearing) and menu items which do not directly relate to the task at hand. Again, Chrome is really a great example of giving context menus which are very dependent on the area clicked, and two very sparse clean menus, with all non-essential interface controls tucked away. Accessible in 3 or less clicks, but away. In addition, this would hopefully lower the levels of total overlap going on.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 8:15 PM, Luke Morton <luke.morton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 2010-05-17 at 18:47 -0700, Tyler Brainerd wrote:
> I know, I know, we just had an announcement about changing menu's over
> to global menu's for the UNE. But seriously, how necessary is 4 menus
> in the calculator application "gcalctool"? The only menu options that
> have anything to do with actual calculator options are under the view
> menu. The rest is silly and redundant.
>
>
> I just wrote a fairly long blog post on my blog here, along with
> mockups and what not:
> http://tjamesubuntu.blogspot.com/2010/05/re-thinking-desktop.html
>
>
> about how silly most apps menu's are. I'm hoping that we can maybe
> pool some resources on looking at what is and what isn't necessary in
> default applications in Ubuntu, although I'm not under any impression
> that this will be something to be put directly in default Ubuntu.
> However, I do think it is the sort of mod that can gain traction
> similar to Nautilus-Elementary if we can get applications repackaged
> with cleaned up and optimized menus.

"Cleaned up and optimised"; sounds like a good idea. How would you do
that for the gcalctool menus? (They seem pretty good to me.)

General comments:
(Pertaining to the removal of menus and replacement with toolbar menus
as mentioned in your blog post.)

1. Menus provide access to functions that might be otherwise obscured,
infrequently used or hard to access--especially for people who cannot
use pointing devices.

For example, I can tell that if I want to insert something into this
email I can press Alt+I to get the insert menu, even though I've never
used it before. If that menu were represented by an icon in a toolbar,
how would I get to it without having to tab through the entire
interface?

2. Menus provide a convenient reference list of keyboard accelerators.
If that menu were represented by an icon in a toolbar, how would I get
to it without having to tab through the entire interface?

Take gcalctool for example. If it didn't have a menu, and you couldn't
use your mouse, how would you switch to a different mode? Quit the
application? Input an ASCII character?

3. A menu by itself takes up less space than a toolbar by itself

Removing the menu in gcalctool in the same way that Nautilus-Elementary
removes the menu would mean that we'd have to add a toolbar for the
functions that have no-where else to go. (I don't think this is
particularly important though.)
None of these are absolute barriers to your idea, but they are things
that need to be considered/resolved.

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