GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 82768
Creating new panels through the desktop's context menu
Last modified: 2012-07-20 05:06:17 UTC
I think it would be nice if the context menu of the desktop had an option to create a new panel (the type of the panel could be selectable through a dialog that would be provided by either nautilus or by the panel itself). Advantages that I think this would have: o it increases the impression of an integrated environment o it allows the creation of panels even if there currently isn't any other panel visible (either because of a bug or because the user removed the last one[1]) o makes it easier to create new panels if all the currently visible panels are completely covered with launchers/applets There has also been some discussion about this on the nautilus list: <http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2002-May/msg00411.html> Regards, Lars [1] Currently the latter isn't possible of course. It's also likely that many people will argue that allowing the last panel to be removed is a stupid thing to do, and while I personally disagree I don't feel so strongly about this that I want to start a bugzilla flamewar on this topic now :) (...and this wouldn't be the right place to do it anyway...)
I think this is not a good idea: 1. Adding panels is not a common enough action by users to justify having the feature in the nautilus pop up menu. (I'd guess that most users will change the panels to the way they like them right after they install gnome and never change them, so why clog up the nautilus context menu with something that won't be used) 2. Some users of nautilus may not be running gnome (it's at least possible) so this would have to be conditionally shown in the context menu based on whether or not gnome is in use. 3. The one justification i heard for this was that if the panel crashes, users shouldn't have to use the terminal to relaunch it. I counter that any sane gnome setup will be running gnome-session which will automatically respawn the panel anyway. 4. Since any sane gnome setup will be running gnome-session, the user will be forced to have at least on panel on the screen, gnome panel will not let you remove all panels (this is very sane). So if you really want to add a panel use the panel context menu. The connection between creating new panels is stronger within the gnome-panel context menu than in nautilus'. Nautilus' context menus are already way too complicated, and need to be reduced to something sane. (I have other bugs for these). I'm tempted to mark won't fix, however do to the comments of others on nautilus-list i think it would be inappropriate for me to make that judgement. Seth, Calum, Nils, what are your opinions? Marking 2.2 since i don't think we want to break the ui much in the 2.0 stable branch.
Given no further comments and a negative response, I'm closing this one.
Lets reopen this with the usability tag and see if the Usability people catch it. One negative comment isn't enough IMHO. And when reading the discussion referenced, some people seem more positive and some neutral about this suggestion. Bug #77292 holds a related discussion.
bug #87330 seems to hold the main discussion about nautilus context menus.
FWIW I actually think it would be fairly harmless useful to add a New Panel item to the desktop background menu the way things work now (and at least occasionally useful-- it's not the first time I've looked for it there myself!) Particuarly if we're moving towards a "panels are just special parts of the desktop" model, which I think most of us generally agree would be a good direction. The current 'add panel' mechanism isn't helped by its implementation, admittedly, which makes it harder than it ought to be to find an empty spot on a panel to right-click on to pop up the required menu. This is well-discussed in another bug that I don't have the number for right now. :/ Maybe it's something to defer until we have more of a plan for panels, though... panel designer, fewer panel types etc.
Reasons why "New Panel" should be on the desktop context menu, not the panels: 1. Having it in the panel context menu breaks the object metaphor. 2. You never create a panel on top of an existing panel, you always create it over a space on the desktop. This way you can click where you want the actual panel to be and have it created there and not at a default location. 3. This would allow users to run without any panels, which should be an option. With Mark's new work on having a single panel type underway I'd love to see a move to creating new panels this way.
I'd also like to see it on the desktop menu, however it does beg the question "how do you create a panel if you don't run Nautilus as your desktop"...
MMm. Well it'd be great if nautilus could check at run time whether or not the panel is running and only show "New -> Panel"* it if it is. Then we can worry about whether or not the option should also be shown in the panel context menu. It should probably stay there for ppl not using nautilus. There always the option to remove it at runtime if nautilus is running, but that might create inconsistencies. * This would need to fit in with the new "New" menu. See bug 41787
It seems much more obvious to click on a panel to create a panel. Nautilus has nothing to do with them :-)
Perhaps "Nautilus" doesn't, but "the desktop" in generally does... that's what I'm adding the panels to. The current model means I can't even delete all my panels because there's no way to add one back afterwards, which is pretty broken IMHO. As a parallel, if I want to create a new text document I don't have to go and find an existing one to click on... I click in part of the window where it will appear (the File->New menu) :o)
First - why do we care about people running GNOME but not Nautilus, or Nautilus but GNOME? We should provide a solid usable desktop, not a bunch of half-usable components to mix-and-match. Second - It does feel far more obvious to put New Panel on the desktop. As a user (ignoring my technical experience), I don't think of the desktop as Nautilus, or the panels as their own processes. I just think of the desktop as whole. The context menu on a panel is for modifying *that* panel, while the context menu on the desktop is for the desktop - you add icons to the desktop in its context menu, you add panels to the desktop thus with its context menu. Relying on the panel context menu to create a new panel is like saying you must open an existing Abiword document to create a new one. It's silly.
You don't have to find and click on a folder to make a new folder. Or file. Or launcher. Why should you have to for panels? Everywhere in Gnome, when you want to make a new object from a context menu, you right-click where you want the object to be, not on another instance of that type of object. I don't buy the "complexity" argument. Shorter menus are generally good, but not to the extent of leaving out menuitems that people expect to find. And by adding these to the desktop menu, they no longer need to be on the panel menu. ("New Folder" isn't on a folder's context menu.) And the desktop context menu is one of the shortest of nautilus' menus to begin with. Is any progress being made here? Would a patch help?
Can we have a decision on whether this should be added?
I still vote "yes", even if it's only as a plugin... although I do think it would be better as a core feature.
We don't have panels anymore and Nautilus doesn't draw the desktop by default.