[Kde-accessibility] do we need menubar in kmag?

[Gunnar Schmi Dt]

Hello,

> This topic was raised recently on the list and I wanted your opinion.
> Earlier versions of kmag had a menubar, but then I decided to get rid o=
f it
> since it was not serving any purpose. kmag is not a file driven
> appication.. there are no files to open or close, so I decided to just =
have
> a toolbar.
>
I think that a menu bar is not only needed for file driven applications. =
In my=20
opinion an application should have a menu bar if it has a tool bar. Off=20
course you could add options to hide both the menu bar and the tool bar=20
(independently from each other).

> Here is what I plan for the future:
>
> 1. As Iain Murray suggested, kmag will have a separate window with all =
the
> options since it will be easy for those with vision problems to locate =
the
> options all in one place. To open the option window, I will add a butto=
n to
> the right of "selection window" (bottom).
>
If you want a configuration dialog, I would put the button for opening it=
 into=20
the menu bar and into the tool bar. The bar with the buttons has already =
a=20
large minimum width. (I usually want to use the full height of the screen=
 for=20
editor windows or browser windows, so that such windows as KMag get place=
d on=20
the side of the screen. There they must not have a too large width).

> 2. I will add two profiles to kmag. One for visibility impaired people =
and
> the other for graphics designers/image processing researchers who just =
need
> it for zooming a part of the screen. We can also have two desktop files
> which go in different places in the menu.
>
I do not think that two profiles are necessary if KMag has enough options=
 to=20
customize the user interface (hide the menu bar/tool bar, configure the i=
cons=20
in the tool bar/the short cuts etc.)

> So the bottomline is that I do not think the menubar is necessary. It
> simply wastes screen space.
>
In my opinion KMag needs a menu bar. But it might not need the bar with t=
he=20
buttons if you put them into the menu bar. For the case that both the men=
u=20
bar and the tool bar are hidden, you could place the most important funct=
ions=20
into a pop up menu.

Gunnar Schmi Dt

P.S.:
As the deadline for i18n-string changes is already this friday, I sugest =
that=20
you do the changes to the user interface after the release of=20
kdeaccessibility (i.e., for KDE 3.2). For the release it would be nice if=
 you=20
could have a look into the version number of the application (It does not=
 yet=20
have the version 3.2, has it?)