Re: My GWorkspace feature request

[Fabien VALLON]

Philippe C.D. Robert (probert@sgi.com) wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, MJ Ray wrote:
> > Philippe C.D. Robert <probert@sgi.com> wrote:
> > > So you actually did write about moving to a contextual menu, you just call
> > > it "invisible menu item". If this is something different then please
> > > explain what you mean by that.
> >
> > An item on the menu that hasn't appeared, evidently.  To do anything
> > useful with your menu, you have to move to an item on it, not just pop
> > it up.
> >
> > > Anyway, my point is that you don't move at all to a contextual menu, since
> > > it shows up where your mouse pointer is.
> >
> > Yes, so you keep saying, totally ignoring my point.  I think we've all
> > gathered that the menu appears nearer the pointer *if* you know it exists.
> > Then again, so does the main menu already.  No gain either way.
> 
> I do not ignore anything, I just fail to understand your reasoning. As we
> discuss contextual menus I am not talking about invisible global (sub)menus or
> whatever you are referring to. All I am saying is that with contextual menus
> you can provide functionality specific to the object you point at right at the
> moment. Now I agree this should not be used in a confusing manner, so I
> could imagine that the middle mouse button could be used to show this menu
> while the right button would be used for the global app menu, for example.
> 
> And yes, there is a gain here, because it accelerates the process of
> interacting with the application. I am not talking about simple apps here,
> I am talking about apps having a lot of menu entries, think of something in
> the size of Photoshop and you will see that using too many inspectors and
> deep menu structures is not (always) the way to go.
> 
> > >> Yes, menus can be detached anyway, so why is there all this talk about
> > >> special contextual menus? They add nothing but interface confusion.
> > >> GNUstep does not need that.
> > > Because a contextual menu contains menu entries which are diffierent to 
> > > the
> > > global main menu, they are specific to the selected object. Thus the word
> > > "contextual"...
> >
> > Are you saying that you want items on the pop-up menu that are not on the
> > global menu?  That would be Evil, Bad and Wrong, as well as inconsistent.
> 
> Yes I am, or at least not in the same structure. And it would not be Evil,
> Bad, Wrong or inconsistent, it would/can be a useful addition to a gui if
> used properly. This includes that such menus are part of the gui guidelines
> so that users are familiar with the concept.

IMO, GNUstep should only enable one mouse button and it should be in the
guideline (for The Environment)
Don't forget that *Step should be use with one hand on the mouse
and the other on the keyboard for quick access (shortcuts).
It is enough IMHO.


Fabien