Review Request: Add ability to hide/show menubar

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

> > On 2010-09-27 23:13:36, Mark Kretschmann wrote:
> > > We actually removed this *on purpose* because of usability issues.
> > > Users would regularly complain over a missing menu. Ergo, sorry, but I
> > > don't think we'll bring this back.
> > > 
> > > Better solution: We'd think about replacing the traditional menu
> > > entirely, maybe like Chromium does.
> > 
> > Valentyn Pavliuchenko wrote:
> >     Can you please explain the problem?
> >     1. So it was enabled on some version?
> >     2. In this patch it is also on a popup menu near the layout options.
> >     3. And menu is still shown by default.
> >     4. If some user hides the menu, then he will a) remember the shortcut
> >     (that is standard and is the same as other KDE apps) and b) will be
> >     able to find this option again in the layout popup menu. 5. We can
> >     show a message like "You're going to hide main menu bar. To show it
> >     back please use <shortcut> shortcut or use appropriate popup menu
> >     command" with Ok/Cancel answers. I think it will be safe for users.
> > 
> > Leo Franchi wrote:
> >     We had numbers of reports from users (back in the 1.x days) who had
> >     managed to hide their menu bars and were not able to get them back.
> >     That was the main reason we removed that. I'm also not completely
> >     convinced that this feature is needed given the potential for
> >     confusion and requirement of new options. Essentially, i'm not
> >     really convinced this crosses the "worth an additional option"
> >     barrier.
> > 
> > Teo Mrnjavac wrote:
> >     Since the visual style I use (QtCurve) provides a hack to remove the
> >     menubar from any app I don't personally care too much about this
> >     issue so I don't mean to push it. However, I'd like to point out
> >     that while I do believe that there were reports from "confused"
> >     users who accidentally removed their menubar, we also had more than
> >     one request from users who wanted to hide their menubar and could
> >     not. Also, please note that many KDE apps do have the option to hide
> >     the menubar (and it's always pretty much in the same place with the
> >     same keyboard shortcut), so one could argue that we are in fact
> >     failing to provide something that has come to be expected in the
> >     overall KDE user experience, for better or for worse. For the sake
> >     of our users who dislike menubars but don't use QtCurve, I would
> >     definitely vote for merging the feature, and adding a warning dialog
> >     with a "don't bother me any more" check box.
> >     
> >     Whether a menubar should exist at all, is a whole other discussion,
> >     and whatever the outcome I wouldn't see it as a reason to reject
> >     this patch here and now.
> 
> You do make good points. I've just tried here with dolphin, konqueror, and
> gwenview, and all hide the menu bar as a result of the ctrl-m shortcut. I
> would support having ctrl-m as a shortcut for hiding the menu, showing a
> dialog warning the user to tell him what he is about to do. I think an
> option in the context menu of the toolbar is unnecessary, though, as kde
> users who are already familiar with the ctrl-m shortcut will be able to
> use it to hide the menubar. once the menu bar has been hidden, however,
> the option should appear in the context menu to restore it.
> 
I agree that consistency is a pretty good argument here. And thus I'd say it's 
okay to stay consistent with other apps by having that option, but then we 
should stay absolutely consistent, i.e. provide an item in the Settings menu 
to hide and when hidden provide an item in the context menu to display it 
again. I don't know if that's what the patch does, but having it always in the 
context menu would be a bad thing. 
Of course there may be users who don't know how to un-hide it, but those are 
likely to have the same problem with other apps and once they've found out in 
one app, they will know in the others as well.

Plus if we put a warning dialog in there, we should suggest the devs of others 
apps with a hideable menu bar to put it in as well.
Or maybe discuss their experiences with the option beforehand. Consistency is 
a good thing, but it only works if done right. Being just 90% consistent might 
make the remaining 10% even more confusing.

> - Leo
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
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> http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/100002/#review27
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> 
> On 2010-09-25 19:23:18, Valentyn Pavliuchenko wrote:
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> > This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> > http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/100002/
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > (Updated 2010-09-25 19:23:18)
> > 
> > 
> > Review request for amarok.
> > 
> > 
> > Summary
> > -------
> > 
> > Add Show Menubar to both main and popup menus to allow hiding/showing
> > menu bar.
> > 
> > 
> > This addresses bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210020.
> > 
> >     https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cg
> >     i?id=210020
> > 
> > Diffs
> > -----
> > 
> >   src/MainWindow.h e6ae0b3
> >   src/MainWindow.cpp 0eb6b28
> > 
> > Diff: http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/100002/diff
> > 
> > 
> > Testing
> > -------
> > 
> > 
> > Screenshots
> > -----------
> > 
> > Popup menu
> > 
> >   http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/100002/s/3/
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Valentyn