Re: Fiddling with the menus (was: bug#4043: 23.1; thanks for emacs 23!)

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 05:53:25 +0200
> From: Lennart Borgman <address@hidden>
> Cc: Xah Lee <address@hidden>, address@hidden
> 
> The "Save options" is in my opinion confusing.

I don't see how it can be.  Many other GUI programs have a similar
feature, and I didn't find it confusing at all.

> I think it would be better to ask for each option if it would be set
> permanently or just temporarily.

That'd be a major annoyance, I think.

> Maybe bury them under "Show/Hide - Advanced - Scroll-bar" etc?
> 
> 
> >>     * The Time, Battery, are of little use. Their functionality are
> >>     provided by the OS's tool bar. Again, for geeks who need it, it is
> >>     easy to call the command by “M-x”.
> >
> > I'd tend to agree.  But I also do not remember why they were added, so
> > maybe there's just something I'm missing.
> 
> Bury it under advanced as above.
> 
> 
> >>     * The Size Indication, which shows the file size in the mode-line,
> >>     should be gone too because for those who needs this feature, they
> >>     don't need a menu.
> 
> Bury it under advanced.

Please, let's not go the way of all the silly programs that put
everything interesting under "Advanced"!

In a good UI, each feature should be put under a group whose name
gives a hint that the feature could be reasonably looked up in that
group.  Having group names such as "Advanced" or "More options", that
have no mnemonic value, is abusing the menus, which are supposed to
make the job of finding a feature _easier_, not harder.