Expose for Menus

[solo]

I thought of something today when looking at a screenshot of a theme with the K menu open. The menu looked good and simple, with the games menu unfolded. The menu had about 4 games, probably just the ones the author used... Then somehow my mind thought "expose".

What if, when the user holds Ctrl (or something) while the menu is open, the unused menu items fade out and move to the bottom of the list, leaving brighter, frequently used items on the top. Then when the user let Ctrl go, it would shift back.

It would also add a nice layer of eye candy, as because the animation is all in the window, it's completely possible with today's KDE and QT!

Any ideas, comments on this? I know M$'s frequently used items menus in winME and win2k were hated... do the same reasons apply to this (i actually liked the ME and 2k menus)

[hm_murdock]

very similar to the feature in Mac OS X 10.3, but applied to menus instead of windows.

Expose'

it's maybe not as straightforward as Personalized Menus in 2000/Me/XP, but it also isn't as invasive. You choose when the menu changes. You'll also want a UI for choosing the criteria.

Why not go a step further and make KDE's main launcher menu more like XP's start panel? I honestly have to say that is one of the best ideas I've seen in a while. Have a user controlled area, and then a "recently run" area. with KDE, you could have a customized area on one side, with links to common folders and volumes and shit on the other. hit the hotkey and the customized area fades into "recent items". another hotkey turns it into "recent documents".

Many of these features would require tying KDE and the graphics layer tighter into the OS, though, instead of having them be user-level apps. They'd have to have full access to some kind of systemwide recent program list.

Linux is gonna have to grow beyond being a simple UNIX clone before long, and when it does, it'll be cool as fuck

[solo]

quote:Originally posted by Jimmy James efender against Trolls:
very similar to the feature in Mac OS X 10.3, but applied to menus instead of windows.

I know. I forgot to mention that likeness. Note the title though...

 

quote:
it's maybe not as straightforward as Personalized Menus in 2000/Me/XP, but it also isn't as invasive. You choose when the menu changes. You'll also want a UI for choosing the criteria.

Why not go a step further and make KDE's main launcher menu more like XP's start panel? I honestly have to say that is one of the best ideas I've seen in a while. Have a user controlled area, and then a "recently run" area. with KDE, you could have a customized area on one side, with links to common folders and volumes and shit on the other. hit the hotkey and the customized area fades into "recent items". another hotkey turns it into "recent documents".

Many of these features would require tying KDE and the graphics layer tighter into the OS, though, instead of having them be user-level apps. They'd have to have full access to some kind of systemwide recent program list.

I don't think software ran outside desktop files should be included in the recent programs list. After all what would we put? "wget"? Now if we standardized a meta data system on top of ELF we could tell if an app was a graphical or ncurses app and make decisions about whether to add it and how to launch it, as well as provide a user friendly name, icon, and description (if available).

 

quote:Linux is gonna have to grow beyond being a simple UNIX clone before long, and when it does, it'll be cool as fuck

[hm_murdock]

quote: I don't think software ran outside desktop files should be included in the recent programs list. After all what would we put? "wget"? Now if we standardized a meta data system on top of ELF we could tell if an app was a graphical or ncurses app and make decisions about whether to add it and how to launch it, as well as provide a user friendly name, icon, and description (if available).

Like I said, it'll require some growth beyond being a UNIX clone, maybe pulling in some NeXT ideas with packages and other such things.

[solo]

quote:
Like I said, it'll require some growth beyond being a UNIX clone, maybe pulling in some NeXT ideas with packages and other such things.

Just you wait. I have a grand design in the works for use with me and Stryker's Calyptos project. The design is meant to be ultra modern and flexible, so it's a big leap from a lot of traditional UNIX  

Of course the directory structure is similiar to OSX's or Gobo's. (ie /System and /Software) and has a kind of fused package system similiar to NeXT and Gobo. (packages are folders that are executed by the OS or environment, similiar to NeXT/OSX but they can be contained in abstract packages (like X11 and a subpackage XFree86 as a vendor package) which can be contained in package groups (like KDE, GNOME, X, etc)) (and the packages can have multiple versions like Gobo, so it will be possible to right-click the packages, click Properties or whatever, then select a default package version, VERY useful for having multiple versions of, say, X... or KDE or whatever).

Anyway I've jotted down a lot of design notes and am running out of areas of the OS. I think that means its time to prototype and improve the design. Lately I have had SO many ideas (i wont say they are good... but i think they are) both for GUIs and for the underltying system.

[solo]

Also, how about Bookmark Previews. When you mouse over a bookmark the page is loaded from a cache (or retreived) and shown on the side of the menu (or somewhere). The idea stemmed from the fact that many sites (like, for instance, this one) dont have very descriptive titles, and people dont have time or even remember to name the bookmark aptly (and most browsers dont ask for names before saving) so why not remind the user what the bookmark is.