[ale] Slackware to drop Gnome?

[Geoffrey]

aaron wrote:
> On Monday 11 October 2004 16:43, Pete Hardie wrote:
> 
>>> I googled for Fitt's Law, and I think that the "Windows style" of
>>> menubar (in the application window) would be more appropritate
>>> than the "Mac style" with regard to Fitt's law.  What am I
>>> missing?
> 
> 
> A couple of things....
> 
> First, and most annoying for someone who learned GUI navigation in
> the on a multitasking graphic media system with a single menubar and
> multiple, independent work space screens for programs, is the wasted
> screen realestate. How many "FILE - EDIT - TOOLS - HELP" menu strips
> do you need on your screen at one time?? More to the point, how many
> can one person USE at one time??

I see your point, but for me, I like the idea of having the menu close 
at hand.  I've got a dual head setup with a 22" monitor and a 19" flat. 
  If I'm working in a window on the right screen, it's going to be 
extremely uncomfortable to scroll to the top left of my primary screen. 
  So maybe the toolbar would be duplicated across the top of both screens?

> The second is more on the Fitts law aspect (at least as Michael
> Hirsch has explained it to me), and has to do with the idea that
> items on the edges of the interface area are infinite in size; once
> the pointer hits the edge it can't go any further, even if you
> continue roll the mouse in that edge direction forever. Any interface
> targets at the far edges are, in effect, the biggest possible targets
> and the easiest to hit.  I would add that the top edge is probably
> the most logical for text menu items, because all common written
> languages read top to bottom, even those that may also read right to
>  left.

I find it easier to move my mouse to the left side of my screen rather 
then the top.  Ergonomically, it seems to be easier, less hand/arm movement.

>> I have a similar question - I work with a number of applications 
>> active at the same time - not all of them have the same menubar
>> items, so this use of Fitt's Law would imply that my menubar would
>> be redrawing every time I moved the mouse off one application onto 
>> another.
> 
> 
> That is the way it works. The menubar tracks to whichever application
> or work space tools you are presently choosing to address.   I think
> any "redraw" overhead is insignificant and can be totally ignored.

I  think this approach might well make sense when most machines were 
running single head, 14" monitors.  It does not make sense to me with a 
setup like my current one.

>> Now, Macs may not have this problem, being a monoculture w/r/t 
>> application software, but Linux is tres diverse, and lots of apps
>> have different menubar items.
> 
> 
> There is nothing in this concept that limits what main and sub menu
> items the application offer the user. Again, this Amiga / Mac Single
> Menu Bar approach works because you, as the user, can only be
> effectively interacting with the one program or making one menu
> choice at any given moment. (Though Amiga had a great, patented menu
> feature that allowed multiple option selections from menu lists with
> a single pull down.)

The whole issue with mouse focus can cloud this.  If you use focus 
follows pointer, by the time you get to the menu, you very likely would 
have a different window active.

> 
> All this being well and good, I think a really big issue for making a
> system comfortable for the user is _consistency_, which is one of the
> challenges for the diverse anarchy of programs and interfaces that
> can be called a Linux system.  Mac built their entire marketing
> reputation on their "user friendly" consistency, though I found their
> heavy handed style guides and one button mouse thinking were extreme
> to the point that, prior to OSeX, I found Job's vision of User
> Friendly quickly became User Handicapping. Still, for menus, most
> every GUI based application ever written has included a standard,
> base set of menu headings and grouped functions, and the order for
> those quickly became ubiquitous across platforms.

How do they handle apps. with multiple toolbars?  menu bar at the top, 
toolbars on the window?

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey       Registered Linux User #108567
                             AT&T Certified UNIX System Programmer - 1995