[50] in Athena User Interface
Re: sawfish configuration
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Tibbetts)
Thu May 18 15:16:27 2000
Message-Id: <200005181916.PAA08377@m66-080-22.mit.edu>
To: Brad Thompson <yak@MIT.EDU>
cc: mjs@eazel.com, danw@helixcode.com, aui@MIT.EDU, tibbetts@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 18 May 2000 13:20:17 EDT."
<200005181720.NAA23568@snow-goon.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 15:16:23 -0400
From: Richard Tibbetts <tibbetts@MIT.EDU>
I think that we should have a menu with less used options available on
every window. This menu could either be on the left like Windows, or
it could be gotten by right clicking on the titlebar. I prefer the
right click idea, because it means that the menu can be available by
clicking anywhere on the frame, so that we don't have to worry about
the top left corner being obscured. It could be in both placees, but
that would be aestetically unpleasing.
Brad wrote:
> Unfortunately, most themes rip off the Win95 idea of having the three
> buttons in the top right corner and a menu in the top left. It is my
> intention to try to elimate the menu without sacrificing functionality
> for 99% of users.
Brad has also said that ~Users who want such a thing can configure it
themselves~(paraphrase). The reason I think we want a menu by default
is to encourage users who want more functions to add them in a
non-stupid way. If there is already a menu, then they will add to it,
rather than rolling their own.
Brad wrote:
> I was confused about what Windows did. I tried it out, and you are
> right about that. However, I also thought the way they did it was
> horrible from a UI standpoint. The frame and title bar look like a
> single object---the top of the window just has a thicker frame and
> has a title and some buttons in it. Clicking on any part should do the
> same operation. I believe that this operation should be to move the
> window. It allows users to move windows when the title bar is off the
> screen or obscured by another window. The corners should be visually
> distinctive to let the users know that they do something different.
From an Athena specific POV, users often find their titlebars obscured
by zephyrs which they do not want to click away. At other times
unfriendly apps will put up immovable(to the novice user) modal
dialogs, and the user will need to find some way to unobscure the
window. Finally, X is quite happy to let users push the top of their
windows off the screen. Thus being able to move the window with any of
the four sides is a good thing.
tibbetts
-*- http://www.mit.edu/~tibbetts -*- finger tibbetts@monk.mit.edu -*-
