unity-design team mailing list archive

[Henrik Peytz <henrik.peytz@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been begging for this particular change too.

It makes more sense since vertical space is only an issue when you want it
(ie. when you maximize windows), so un-maximized windows have no use for the
global menu since, if they're un-maximized, they don't need the extra
vertical space to render properly.

Also, I think it's a bit of a stretch to expect application-devs to make
their applications global-menu compatible. I can see how maximized windows
getting stripped of their titlebar is relatively easy to implement in Unity
without requiring dev's to change their apps (if maximized, then...), but
making the standalone windows behave in this way must require some change in
the application itself.

2011/5/18 Niklas Rosenqvist <niklas.s.rosenqvist@xxxxxxxxx>

> Hi!
> I as many have questioned the global menu bar which Unity features. I
> believe there are several issues with it as it is today and I will air my
> thoughts here.
>
> Many has complained on that it is incredibly frustrating to be working with
> on larger monitors. If the active window is in the bottom right corner and
> you have the menu at the top (which isn't even visible until you hover it)
> it makes no sense what so ever to look for it up there and it's really
> ineffective. Consider the following:
>
> 2011/5/18 Ralph Green <sirable@xxxxxxxxx>
>  > The global menu bar
>  > is another matter. It must die. If there is one feature that will
>  > drive me away from Unity, this is it. Again, there is no benefit,
>  > except on really small screens. And, now, I don't even see the menu
>  > until I move the mouse to the upper left hand corner of the screen.
>  > That is often a long way from where my program is. This really take a
>  > lot longer to operate. I don't understand how anyone could like it.
>  > I am not saying they are wrong to like it. I just don't understand
>  > how such a crazy thing was adopted. You know this feature was put on
>  > the Macs because they had such tiny screens at the time(512 by 384
>  > pixels). I have seen Mac people discuss why it is a bad idea in the
>  > days of large screens and it only stays because of inertia. And Steve
>  > Jobs obsession with simplicity over usability., to be sure.
>
> Though I think that there has been proposed a really good solution to this:
>
> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 7:10 PM, GonzO Rodrigue <worlord668@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>  > [...] B) only appeared in the
>  > "panel" space when the app is maximized. Leaving it in the window space
>  > makes more sense when not maximized [...]
>
> This way the menu wouldn't be taking up space when the application is
> maximized and it would still leave the menu implementation up the developers
> to design freely as they want. With this design firefox 4 could have it's
> menu button instead of splitting it into a menu to work with the global menu
> bar and developers doesn't have to make their programs compatible with the
> global menu since it would just melt together the program's title bar with
> the panel.
>
> This makes much more sense than today's implementation and it would offer
> more effective work flow when you don't have to move across the entire
> screen.
>
> There are also more situations where the global menu works like a crippled
> narwhal. E.g. when working with programs as GIMP. GIMP has one main
> application window and several smaller windows with tools and such and if
> you have one of the smaller windows active you can't reach the menu, even if
> they are a part of the same application. You must target the main window and
> then you can reach the menu.
>
> So what are your thoughts? If anyone already knows how it will be
> implemented in 11.10 (maybe from a discussion at UDS) please share your
> knowledge!
>
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