Comment 10 for bug 732653

Revision history for this message
Dag Ă…gren (paracelsus) wrote :

This issue really is absurd on desktop machines. The menu is hidden for absolutely no reason - the space left behind after it is hidden is not actually used for anything! This does not save any space, it actually wastes it!

As for the design document,

> Menus are an essentially awkward way of presenting functionality and
> options to the user of an application. Many modern applications are being
> designed without substantial menus.

Be that as it may, most applications DO use menus, right now. This is not going to change in the short or medium term.

> The top edge of the screen has some advantages for fine mouse pointer
> targeting.

As somebody pointed out, IF you can see what you are targeting! Hiding the menus ruins this advantage of the edge of the screen, so this is really an argument AGAINST the current design.

> The top level of the menu rarely shows significant information (it is not
> an indicator) - it consists essentially of category headings, like "File"
> and "Edit" and "View". None of those add any relevant information to the
> task at hand, or wider awareness.

This is entirely incorrect. After a short time of usage, the user will learn in which menu a certain option is, and aim for it. This is certainly "wider awareness". Furthermore, applications tend to (and should) place similar items in similar menus, so this knowledge is useful across applications.

Menu headings ARE very significant information.

> The name of the focused application is less relevant when there is only
> one visible application (maximised) and more relevant when there are many
> applications on screen (windowed).

True, and not relevant to this issue. The menus should be placed to the right of the application name, as they are on OS X.

> Screen space is extremely valuable, and we prefer to use pixels for
> content that is unique to the focused task, or wider awareness, than for
> chrome.

With the current system, the pixels in question go UNUSED. This, too, is an argument against the current design.