menu editing

[George]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 08:35:55AM +0700, Darryl Rees wrote:
> (b) graphic artists, musicians and software developers do need different 
> menu setups and may be sharing the same machine (or the same corporate 
> standard of a distribution). If I have 20 music/audio apps or 20 image 
> editing apps I would organize them differently than if I had 2. 
> Computers that try and outguess users are damn annoying, and when you 
> can't override the guesses it is infuriating.

The question is, how to "override".  I have never viewed the menu system
as a quick way to launch frequently used apps anyway, that's what the
panel/desktop is for really.

> (c) not all programs get menu installation right or even install menus. 
> In gnome, pdf and postscript viewers are under graphics???  what the 
> hell are the criteria for 'accessories', or 'other'.

This is not a problem of the applications.  Once they supply the vfolder
categories it is up to the vfolder menu app to put them whereever you wish.
You can change the vfolder to put even newly installed apps to whatever
places YOU wish.  That's the whole idea of vfolders, the structure of the
menu is NOT up to the installer, it's done by the vfolder system.

> (d) customizing your menus is a geeky thing to do precisely *because* it 
> is so difficult, on all systems.

It is very easy on windows and no one does it.  Once you fall into having
the user organize everything, then the user really DOES have to organize
everything.  You may make a few percent happy and the rest will just have
horrible unorganized menu mess.

> btw, there are solutions to your wife deleting the launcher but not the 
> app. eg. in your menu-editing ui have a list of apps currently not in 
> the menu. Alternatively (or in addition), deleting a launcher 
> automatically pops up your package manager asking if you want to be rid 
> of the app.

That's what I suggested ...  Of course this is only on the desktop.  Because
of the menu mess she rarely uses the menu itself.  The apps she wants to use
are on the desktop, since all windows installers put an icon on the desktop
because they all realized that the menu is unusable if it is up to the user
to organize it.

George

-- 
George <jirka at 5z.com>
   I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
                       -- Rita Mae Brown