Created attachment 11093 [details] [review]
Patch adding said menus

Created attachment 11094 [details] [review]
Extra file required for recent applications menu

Created attachment 11095 [details] [review]
Extra file required for recent applications menu

Screenshots of this stuff in action can be found here: 
http://snorp.coreyo.net/files/Screenshots/gnome-panel/

Any suggestions from the usability team would be greatly appreciated.
 Thanks.

Created attachment 11097 [details] [review]
Updated patch, fixes a small problem with duplicate stuff in the menu

Oops, wrong bug.  The above patch is for gnome-desktop.

Usability: need to know how this fits in with the grand scheme for
menus ....

I'm not sure we have one yet, but Seth and Dave seem to have the most
ideas... GEP anyone?  :)

i'd be willing to do one, but i would want to do in conjuction with
both calum and seth. Since they are probably the most respected ui
guys in gnome and i'm still very new and my ideas are rough. So calum
if your up to it lets try to talk sometime on irc, and hopefully seth
will be back online soon too.

*** Bug 5199 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Ok I think i've developed an opinion on this now. 

Based on the current menu layout, which I don't think we want to
change too much in the near term, i think adding "open recent =>" to
Actions, as  proposed by nils, would be an acceptable way to add this
feature. Another benefit of this feature is that it helps move us away
from an app based ui more towards an document object based ui.

However, I'm against adding a recent apps feature. I just don't see
any benefit. I don't think users will be able to launch an application
any faster by scanning a list of unrelated apps in an arbitrary
category who's only relation is that they've been recently used. I'm
not a usability expert by any means, but my guess is that
categorization is a much stronger method of allowing users to quickly
scan for an app to launch rather than short term memory (this argument
doesn't apply to open recent since it provides a faster way to open a
document than searching through a confusing file system hierarchy).

Calum other UI guys/gals what do you think?

Recent Apps: I kind of agree... as I said on the list the other day, I
think this would only be useful if we kept the list lenght to a
minimum (5 or 6 items) and put it at the top level of the Applications
menu.  We'd maybe have to visually distinguish it from the rest of the
menu somehow, too-- not sure how, perhaps a different background colour.

Recent Files: I'd be fine with an "Open Recent" item on the actions
menu... again though, I think we'd get most benefit from this (in the
longer term) if it wasn't a submenu.  But it wouldn't belong on the
Actions menu then either... if we really did want to move to a more
doc-centric model it would probably be better as a menu in its own
right, which also included items for creating new documents.

Ok, so is the "official" position that the apps menu is a no go, while
the recent docs menu is ok under the Actions menu (at least for now)?
 If so, I would like to get this in as soon as Alex's icon stuff gets
moved.....

What if the recent apps were like the app switcher on the foobar (as
Calum suggested)?  Would people use this?

'official" seems a little strong, how about "the opinion of a couple
of guys interested in gnome usability."

I still see little benefit in adding recent apps. I agree in the long
term that recent documents may make a good top level menu, or
alternatively it may be something worth thinking about adding to a
task menu, but this is sort of futurish and outside the scope of this
bug. 

Usability guys: okay so short term I'm thinking of going with ..

Actions:
   Run Program...
   Search for Files...
   Screenshot...
   ------------------
   Open Recent       >
   ------------------
   Lock Screen
   Log Out

Input on the specifics of this welcome ...

Hmm, it looks a little weird grouped on its own in the middle of the
menu.  Perhaps it should be grouped with "Search for Files", and
Screenshot moved down a bit (being probably less-frequently used)?  E.g:

   Run Program...
   ------------------
   Search for Files...
   Open Recent       >
   ------------------
   Screenshot...
   ------------------
   Lock Screen
   Log Out

I think that might also make it more obvious that "Open Recent" means
"Open Recent Files", eather than "Open Recent Applications" (say).

in windows i believe the "recent files" menu is just called
"Documents." Calum what do you think about this?

It's called "Recent Documents" in Windows.  I guess the docs team
should probably make the final call, but I always think 'Documents'
has the potential to be slightly misleading here since the list can
presumably contain things like pointers to streaming media broadcasts
that you've listened to recently, which I can almost think of as files
(although even that's a stretch) but definitely not documents :)

Any thoughts, docs guys?

I'd go along with Calum and say that Files = Documents plus some other
stuff, even thought it's a bit of a stretch. So I assume the menu item
would look something like as follows: 

Open Recent > 	Files
		Applications

Yes?

Pat

pat... We decided not to add recent applications.

so the idea would be

Open Recent > 	ten or so recent files

...then just "Open Recent Files" would be my vote, although I would
also be ok with just "Open Recent ...".

this is fixed...