Debian Menus (Was: Re: [PROPOSED] moving the menu hierarchy into debian policy)

["Juergen A. Erhard" <jae@ilk.de>]

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Can I donate some change (about $0.02, I think)?

[Sorry for cross-posting, but this started on debian-policy, but
people were not sure whether it really belongs there at this time]

>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Waters <xtifr@dsp.net> writes:

    >> * You need to put commonly accessed menus as close to the root as possible.
    >> That's why the XShells menu is right on the root, because we know people
    >> start more xterms than anything else.

    Chris> This is why *my* number one, absolute top priority for changes to the
    Chris> current menu system is to put in a TOP LEVEL ENTRY NAMED "Help".  With
    Chris> at least: "Debian Online Help" (currently hidden in Apps/Tools), Gnome
    Chris> Help (currently in Apps/Viewers), tkinfo (currently in Apps/Viewers),
    Chris> and xman (location unknown).  This is SOO important for novices!

Right on...

    >> * You need to limit menus to no more than 15 items, 10 is better. Otherwise
    >> they won't fit on some screens.

[SNIP Chris# response]

I'd propose (if I were a developer), to *not* put everything under the
sun into the default menu.

Instead, we should make it editable... such that, when the user first
opens the menu, there are some (limited) defaults, like, one *std* app
for each category (or maybe two)[1].

There needs to be default entries/menus in the root menu

  + Help, with contents as Chris mentioned.

  + Session or Exit or s.th. like this.  I'm pretty annoyed with Exit
    (and Restart) being in WindowManagers, where every user will look
    for them (my old AfterStep .steprc had a root menu Exit).

  + Config This Menu... okay, maybe a Config menu, with entries for
    all relevant stuff.  Including, of course, the general Debian menu
    editor.

I think this would make much more sense than the current `group by
where it is in FTP'.  We really should group by what it does, and be
more intelligent about this.

Yes, I know there's no such thing as a Debian Menu Editor.  But I
think the menu system needs to support editing/customizing the menu
hierarchy for this to be really useful.

The menu that is displayed needs to be separate (on a per-user basis)
From the menu hierarchy in which packages install their entries/menus.

The menu editor would then show the hierarchy of installed
apps/tools/etc, and the menu as currently configured, and the user
could copy entries or whole menus between them...

Also, this would make adding locally installed packages easier.

What do y'all think?

Anyway,

Bye, J

[1]We should generalize mime-types and alternatives: both are
priority-based.  For the menu hierarchy, this means the top priority
apps of each category (and the top categories) go into the default
menu.

- -- 
Jürgen A. Erhard      eMail: jae@ilk.de      phone: (GERMANY) 0721 27326
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