GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 108677
Show Desktop button doesn't match glossary
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
The Show Desktop button has a tooltip saying "show the desktop". This disagrees with my understanding of how the word "desktop" should be used according to the GNOME Style Guide's glossary (http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/gnome-glossary-desktop.html). Accordingly, I've replaced "show the desktop" with "show the desktop background". There is a patch included below. Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with CVS, so I may have done this wrong. Index: applets/wncklet/showdesktop.c =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/gnome/gnome-panel/applets/wncklet/showdesktop.c,v retrieving revision 1.6 diff -u -r1.6 showdesktop.c --- applets/wncklet/showdesktop.c 7 Mar 2003 04:00:36 -0000 1.6 +++ applets/wncklet/showdesktop.c 18 Mar 2003 15:44:28 -0000 @@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ _("Click here to restore hidden windows.")); } else { set_tooltip (sdd->button, - _("Click here to hide all windows and show the desktop.")); + _("Click here to hide all windows and show the desktop background.")); } } @@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ about = gnome_about_new (_("Show Desktop Button"), VERSION, "Copyright \xc2\xa9 2002 Red Hat, Inc.", - _("This button lets you hide all windows and show the desktop"), + _("This button lets you hide all windows and show the desktop background"), authors, documenters, strcmp (translator_credits, "translator_credits") != 0 ? translator_credits : NULL,
Is this good or bad? Did anyone discuss the terminology here?
I think this was discussed before ... I'm not sure even this is the correct terminology as its not just the desktop background we're showing, but also the desktop icons. CC-ing our linguistic ornothologists (Pat and Eugene)
I think Mark is right. When referring to the "Desktop", we always mean the whole workspace including it's content. When talking about the "Desktop Background", we talk about the part of the desktop you can modify by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting the "Change Desktop _Background" menu item. Anyway, Dafydd, thanks for your patch! Basically since 2.x we changed our terminology, so the style guide definitly needs a touch. I propose renaming "Desktop" to "Desktop Environment" and "Desktop Background" to "Desktop". Of course that requires a new definition for "Desktop Background". regs, Chris
Here a couple more possible titles for this button: - Minimize All Windows - Hide All Windows
Outside of the GNOME community, there is still a sizeable lobby that thinks that "desktop" = "everything". For example the marketing group in Sun thinks that is the case, and continues to tout the "GNOME Desktop". The definition of "desktop background" = "the place behind the icons" falls out naturally from the prior definition. Having said that, there is merit in the suggestion that Chris puts forward. There seems to be substantially on-going support for the concept that "desktop" = "the place behind the icons". There is a discussion going on elsewhare about changing the "Actions" menu to "Desktop", see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=89874. If we say that "Desktop Environment" = everything, then would we be able to renominate the "Actions" menu to "Desktop Environment"? A long menu header, but probably accurate. Also, we could probably move the menu item "Desktop Preferences" from the "Applications" menu, into the renamed "Desktop Environment", and drop the "Desktop" part so that the menu item would be just "Preferences". Implying preferences for the whole desktop environment. We can't just make the changes that Chris suggests without taking into account the above considerations. Ramble, ramble...
...and I forgot to add: Eugene is correct when he suggests labels for the button that match the real functionality. Even if we change the name of the thing behind the icons to "desktop", the button in question still does not shown the desktop. There will always be bits floating around that are not genuine parts of the "desktop", even in the revised definition of the term desktop. We should accurately match the label with perceived functionality.
My understanding of: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-June/msg00456.html is that the current terminology is okay ... Re-open if not.