Re: My GWorkspace feature request

[Pascal Bourguignon]

> > On Mon, 2003-06-16 at 05:53, Eric Christopherson wrote:
> > [..]
> > > I still haven't talked about the idea I have for context
> > > menus. Now bear with me; this is just an idea I've had, and I
> > > realize some issues would have to be worked out for it to apply
> > > to GNUstep.
> > > 
> > > It goes as follows. Each application would have a "special" menu
> > > in its menubar/application menu. I'm not sure what I would call
> > > it, but possible names I've thought of are Object, Item, or
> > > Context. Anyway, this menu would contain actions that deal with
> > > whatever object is selected -- be it a file, a widget in Gorm, a
> > > text selection, a mail message, or whatever. The menu would be
> > > shown in both the menubar/main menu *and* the transient menu
> > > (that thing that pops up by default when you hold the right
> > > button in Open/ GNUstep).
> > > 
> > > The entries in the special menu would change depending on what
> > > object is selected (using the word "selected" very loosely; it
> > > might just mean the mouse pointer is over it). So you would only
> > > get actions which make sense in the current context. The problem
> > > that I can see with this, unfortunately, is that things (such as
> > > menus) that change tend to give usability junkies fits.
> > > 
> > > The remaining feature of my menu design would be that when the
> > > user presses the right button, the *whole* transient application
> > > menu should show up, *plus* the context menu, thus allowing the
> > > user easy access to either application-global actions or
> > > context-specific ones, while still separating them spatially.
> > > 
> > > The way I envision it, the context menu would be positioned such
> > > that its title cell is directly underneath the mouse pointer,
> > > just as the application menu now starts with its title under the
> > > pointer. The application menu would be positioned just to the
> > > left of it, such that the title cell of the context menu is
> > > positioned just to the right of its corresponding entry in the
> > > app menu. Thus it would look just the same as first opening up
> > > the app menu and then mousing down to the "Context" entry (or
> > > whatever name it takes), thus popping open the context submenu;
> > > except that the submenu would start up already open.
> > > 
> > > Well, I've gone on long enough. Let me know what you think. Like
> > > I said, I'm not sure how well my menu idea would fit GNUstep,
> > > but I've been curious what others might think of it.

You're designing badly something new.

That's not a context menu, that's a the-thing-selected menu.

That's something that already exist in a form: this is exactly the way
the Macintosh  menues have always  worked: enabling or  disabling menu
items in function of the current selection.

Gathering these items on a special menu does not change a lot.


The  NeXTSTEP  UI guidelines,  enabling  or  disabling  menu items  is
disapproved.  The  main  menu   should  be  rather  static,  to  avoid
surprizing the user  by adding/removing items or by  puzzling him with
enabled/disabled items.


Merging this notion with that  of the contextual pop-up menus is plain
wrong.

When you right-click on an object to get a contextual pop-up menu, you
can have a selection that  is meaningful and completely different than
the clicked  object: the  selection is dead  data, while the  objet is
life and  you're talking  to it, sending  a message selected  from the
pop-up menu.

Putting  such a  contextual  pop-up menu  in  the menu  bar is  silly,
because once you've  reached the menu bar, the context  is no more the
object your cursor was over, but the menu bar.



Please, don't mix things that work well separated.
-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__                   http://www.informatimago.com/
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Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality.