[Mageia-dev] freedesktop spec and categories

[Michael Scherer]

Le jeudi 24 février 2011 à 10:06 +0100, Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
> Le jeudi 24 février 2011 08:27:36, Oliver Burger a écrit :
> > Am Donnerstag 24 Februar 2011, 08:20:41 schrieb Tux99:
> > > I have always hated that apps 'disappear' in the Other folders, can we
> > > not completely get rid of the Other folders, they don't make any sense
> > > (at least intuitively for a user).
> > 
> > IIRC this is triggered by the "Categories" entry in the desktop file of the
> > application. I think we would have to patch ALL upstream desktop files to
> >  get rid of it which would be quite a pain.
> > 
> > Oliver
> > 
> 
> I don't think so. Several Mandriva releases ago, there was no such "More" 
> entry, but real sub-categories in the menu. Then it changed for what we have 
> now, but that wasn't a change in the .desktop files, rather a menu 
> configuration. I guess that was a decision meant to bring "simplicity",

Yes, and that's a choice that can be backed by several studies on the
subject, the working memory have been estimated to be 7 chunks of
information ( between 5 and 9 is a wildly accepted range ). I remember
having seen a studie saying that it was less than this, but I cannot
find it ( and it was on slashdot, so this may have been wrong ).

So presenting only ~7 chunks of information ( ie ~7 items in menu ) is
better according to the current cognitive model used, such as this one :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_information_processor_model 

>  but I 
> always hated that choice, because nobody can know in advance whether an 
> application will show in the first level or be hidden in the "more" section.

Technically, nobody can know in advance if a software is installed or
not. Sure, that's a problem to give support to someone by phone or to
write documentation. But IMHO, it is better to have uncluttered menus,
as a menu is basically used more often than the support. Of course, from
the person giving support,  the benefit of having someone else menu
uncluttered are near 0, as they do not use the system of someone else.

>  I prefer a 2-level menu tree. If people find that it makes too much clicks, 

This is not the number of click, but the fact that it take a longer time
to scan the whole menu. Like reading a article with and without carriage
return. The number of word to read are the same, but it is easier with
carriage return, because this doesn't require any form of coordination
( ie, this is not on the same cognitive level ).  

I am not sure if I am clear enough, but on the other hand, I fear that
explaining the whole topic would requires much more time, and time have
showed that people hate when I explain them ergonomics ( as seen on
various rpmdrake bugs ).

> then 
> they shouldn't be using the menu but add a shortcut to the applications they 
> use regularly in their taskbar or desktop (or just use ALT+F2).

So if you do not like the current system, you can just add a shortcut or
use "alt + F2", and that's all :)

-- 
Michael Scherer