Re: [Texmacs-dev] Reorganization of the menubar

[David Allouche]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 07:13:52PM +0200, Joris van der Hoeven wrote:
> 
> > > I also checked several editors and browsers and you seem to be right.
> > > I probably should make it something like
> > > 
> > >   File Edit View Insert Text Paragraph Document Go Tools Settings Help
> > 
> > Let us consider two browsers which are renowed for the quality of
> > their GUI: Konqueror and Galeon. If we mimic their layout we can get:
> > 
> >   Galeon style:
> > 
> >     File Edit View Settings Go Insert Text Paragraph Document Tools Help
> > 
> >   Konqueror style:
> > 
> >     File Edit View Go Tools Settings Insert Text Paragraph Document Help
> > 
> > I tend to prefer the second layout.
> 
> Be careful to compare only with browsers, because these applications
> can nor really be used in order to edit files. For text editors,
> the layout
> 
> File Edit Insert ...
> 
> is much more common. Having four items before Insert seems quite
> unnatural for me, not to speak about six. As to semantics,
> it is also natural to relegate the menus which are used less
> to the right; this is the case for Tools and Settings and
> this is indeed what most applications do.
> Similarly, I find it more natural to have View at the end and
> Go at the start, but other applications do not seem to agree on this:
> most put View after Edit and Go (which is often called Documents)
> somewhere at the end. If you insist on putting View and Go
> close one to another, we might also choose to put them more at the end.
> 
> As a conclusion, I definitely prefer to have Tools and Settings
> at the end, because 1) they are less used 2) this is what most programs do
> 3) they are not *that* semantically close to File, etc.
> As to View and Go, I still hesitate.

Well, I think you have a point.

To help us on that problem, I asked some friend of mine who I trust
for all user interface matters. They have been interested in usability
problems and GUI design for years and have been involved in the beta
testing of several (proprietary) software.

Essentially, they gave you your point that "Insert... Document" should
be at the start in a text editor, and they gave me my point that
"View" and "Go" should be together. One interesting point is that text
editors generally have a "Window" menu instead of "Go" but, at moment,
that does not apply to texmacs.

Their proposal, which appears fine to me is:

  File Edit Insert Text Paragraph Document View Go Tools Settings Help

One of my worries with putting "Go" at the end of the menu-bar is
that, as a very short word, it risks being visually eclipsed by nearby
longer words. One tend no to see the far end of the menu-bar; stefp
just said me "oops I did not see the See menu". But with that
ordering, "View Go Tools" form a nice visual group which prevent the
reader from missing "Go".

-- 

                             -- David --