GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 349926
"New" menu item doesn't make sense, should be split.
Last modified: 2013-01-09 20:27:18 UTC
When used on its own, the command "New" in a menu normally refers to new documents. In the case of meld, which doesn't create documents, but new views, the command should be quantified in some way, eg "New comparison". (The first time I used meld this *really* confused me.) Also, the flow of this command is not good. To start something in meld, I have to choose New, and then choose one of three tabs. I suggest splitting the New dialog into three, each with an entry in the File menu: File -> New File Comparison File -> New Directory Comparison File -> New Directory Comparison File -> New Browser However, I'd also suggest asking the usability list for their ideas.
bug #342701 kinda addresses this issue as well. But relabelling to "compare.." would make much more sense; and maybe an icon similar to "gnome-stock-multiple-file" The only confusion then will be that there will be two "compare" buttons on top of each other in the toolbars !
It's a good idea to have separate menu entries, each with accels. I may implement it by just opening the correct tab of the exising dialog. "New..." should probably be "Compare xxx". Ideally the new dialog would go away altogether and "new" would just open a new notebook tab, but the current code requires you to know in advance if it's a 1,2 or 3 paned view.
Sounds good. And 'Compare Files' etc is good for the menu items, agreed. I would hazard a guess that the problems described in the other bug (choosing items for one type of comparison and then finding you want the other) are mostly a consequence of having the current common menu item, and that the proposed fix would also fix this problem. I have started taking a look at this, and I started on some new dialogs in Glade, but it's slow work and I know nothing about the changes that need to be made in code, so it's probably best if I play to my strengths and focus on docs.
The menu item has been renamed, as suggested, and now opens a 'New comparison' tab. While this doesn't actually address the 'split the menu item' request, I don't think it actually makes that much sense to do so. As Stephen said (a long time ago now) the code needs to know how many panes to display. However, I think the deeper problem is that the UI for dynamically adjusting the number of panes is really hard. It's very easy to imagine that if we presented a two pane view with some kind of switcher, then many users would never know that Meld does three-way comparisons. The new tab isn't ideal, but I do think it addresses the major concerns associated with the old dialog. I'd very much welcome follow-up discussion or bugs filed against it. Thanks for the bug report.