[Qgis-developer] 'File' versus 'Project'

[John C. Tull]

Hi Antonio,

I think it is more about having consistency for the platform than anything else. We want the user to find the application familiar. The death-knell of many an OS X application on review sites is how non-Mac-like the application feels. Users expect the menubar to exist and to provide a means of navigating standard application operations.

Developers will provide their own customization in different formats. Microsoft Office has their "ribbon" interface that provides "organized" drop-downs and formatting elements outside of the menubar, but you are able to do most of the same stuff by navigating the menus and options therein.
http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Office-for-Mac-ribbon-default-1024x614.png

I think we can achieve the customization desired while maintaining the HIG for OSX.

Cheers,
John

On Apr 24, 2013, at 9:10 AM, Antonio Locandro <antoniolocandro at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I am having a second look at the menus and can I ask why would you want to crowd the menus with the same actions you already have icons for in toolbars?
>  
> e.g. 
>  
> Edit menu has all the same tools as the Advanced Editing Toolbar (I highly doubt users doing serious editing would use menus instead of icons)
> Layer menu has all this add layer types the same as Manage Layer Toolbar (would look better with just an icon that opens a file dialog to whatever data you need, an universal add data button type)
>  
> IMHO it seems a waste of space and makes things crowded 
> 
>  
>  
> Ing. Antonio Locandro
> Tegucigalpa, Honduras
> +504 9503 5747
> Need a GPS map for Central America, Asia or South America / Necesitas un mapa GPS para Centro America, Asia o Sur America
> 
> 
> 
>  
> From: madmanwoo at gmail.com
> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:07:58 +1000
> To: custard at westnet.com.au
> CC: qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-developer] 'File' versus 'Project'
> 
> Ramon,
> 
> I would agree with those points. In fact I think the menu structure as is doesn't make much sense and the Edit menu should be renamed to Feature/s.  
> 
> What does Edit mean:
> 
>  - Edit Layer
>  - Edit Feature
>  - Edit Project
> 
> If you look at all the tools in the Edit menu they are all related to the current feature or features.  The undo and redo actions should be moved to the layer menu.
> 
> Here are my thoughts on the Layer menu:
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/oYO55Qz.png
> 
> Moving the Add xxx Layer to the project menu would mean you follow these actions when creating a new project:
> 
> Project -> New
> Project -> Add xxx Layer
> 
> Change the style
> 
> Layer -> Properties
> 
> That is a more logical flow IMO then currently what is there.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> - Nathan
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 8:21 PM, Ramon Andiñach <custard at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> 
> On 24/04/2013, at 05:55 , Ramon Andiñach wrote:
> 
> >
> > On 24/04/2013, at 04:28 , John C. Tull wrote:
> >
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I was having some discussion on IRC today with Tim and Larry about the recent change to the menu in trunk. Before, the menu used "File" and that was changed to "Project". My position is that it does not seem Mac-like, whether or not a QGIS document resides in the filesystem as a .qgs file or if your "Project" is fed from a database, something apparently planned for the future of QGIS.
> >>
> >> I'd be interested in feedback from other Mac users on this. I'm flexible to the change, but wanted to vet this and see if anyone else had a strong opinion one way or the other. Please make it clear if you are a Mac OS X user or not.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> John
> >
> > Interesting. I'd say this is going to look as odd at home on my mac as at work on their windows box. No file menu - that's going to look very unfamiliar.
> >
> > That said, it's a good name. It does describe what's in there - those commands work on the project-file not a layer-file.
> >
> > -ramon.
> 
> Ok. I've been standing at the bottom of a large-ish hole today, so if this sounds like a dumb idea that's my excuse.
> 
> Could we move Layer across next to Project?
> 
> 
> Some reasoning.
> 1. If we're abandoning File in favour of Project, then there's possibly no reason to retain Edit next to it either. Other than historical ones.
> 2. Project and Layer are largely about opening, closing, saving (and other similar things) files. Project files in one menu and Layers (vectors, rasters, DB, etc) in the other.
> 3. Then you have a more logical progression from left to right about how to use QGIS. (Open stuff, change stuff)
> 
> -ramon.
> (OK, 1. is not so good, but it does open the door to ask questions!)
> 
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