On Sat, 2007-07-28 at 04:47 -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote: > On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:22:11 +0200, Frank Küster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > > Josselin Mouette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> As long as it is not shown, it doesn't matter, so I guess we can > >> agree on this matter. > > > No, not at all. I have not yet seen a convincing argument for hiding > > menu entries. The only ones were "less is more", which is to vague to > > get one much further, and "we need to hide stuff like python", which > > is plain wrong IMHO because I think python shouldn't have a menu entry > > at all. > > Actually, microsoft (which seems to be what GNOME folk are > trying ever so hard to emulate) came up with a decent solution -- they > added shaded areas to menus to indicate that something is hidden from > the user, and the user can just hover over the are to open up the > hidden entries. <snip>
That's actually terrible for usability. First, any UI feature that involves hovering is hostile both to novices, because it's effectively hidden, and to experienced users, because they know where they're going and don't want to wait. Second, users cannot learn where menu entries are if they keep moving around. Windows XP and later versions don't hide anything in the Programs sub-menu but they try to duplicate the most commonly used programs directly on the Start menu, with the option of explicitly "pinning" them in place. This works pretty well, though there are some difficulties in working out which are most commonly used (see the series of articles beginning with <http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/06/11/3215739.aspx>). Ben. -- Ben Hutchings Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain. - Lily Tomlin
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