unity-design team mailing list archive

[Tyler Brainerd <tylerbrainerd@xxxxxxxxx>]

oops! only sent the following to luke

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:  [image: Calculator_027.jpg]
>
>
> 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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>
>