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Bug 593062 - GIMP doesn't play nice with gnome globalmenu
GIMP doesn't play nice with gnome globalmenu
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Product: GIMP
Classification: Other
Component: User Interface
2.6.7
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: Future
Assigned To: GIMP Bugs
GIMP Bugs
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2009-08-25 19:47 UTC by Ethan Anderson
Modified: 2010-04-28 06:53 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Ethan Anderson 2009-08-25 19:47:06 UTC
http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/

Correct behavior: menu is visible in top panel regardless of which GIMP
window is in focus.

Because not everyone uses a globalmenu, this may have to be a toggle added to GIMP.
This is a requisite for replacing PS + OS X with GIMP + Ubuntu.  (Although I have been getting by with focus-on-hover set in compiz, I'm not the average graphic designer, and it's still very annoying.)
Comment 1 Martin Nordholts 2009-08-25 20:01:46 UTC
I like the concept of a global menu and would like to review a patch to improve GIMP's cooperation with a global menu, setting milestone to Future.
Comment 2 Michael Natterer 2009-08-25 21:26:44 UTC
We already have a global menu (it's e.g. used for the right-click popup
and for the OS X menubar). Do you have a proper API that enables this
gnome globalmenu, or do you hack around in the active window's internals?

Will gnome globalmenu behave like the global menu on the mac (trading
mouse precision for speedy access to the menu, following fitt's law
which was devised on small monitors in the last millenium)?
Comment 3 Michael Natterer 2009-08-25 21:33:06 UTC
That last comment's tone doesn't come across as intended...
but my questions remain of course.
Comment 4 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-25 21:36:36 UTC
I find Fitt's law extremely relevant today, and I make use of it constantly, whether with gnome globalmenu or xmonad.  I have tried many different kinds of menus, the circular menu thing is pretty cool-- as it stands though, the default menu system on Windows and the platforms that unquestioningly mimic it simply isn't good enough.  Plus it's ugly.
Comment 5 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-25 21:37:38 UTC
And right now, I think it may be a bit of a hack, but it is a hack proven to work well with properly written applications.
Comment 6 Michael Natterer 2009-08-28 12:15:58 UTC
What is required to make it work? What are you APIs?
Comment 7 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-28 12:55:24 UTC
I've never seen the code for either, so I don't know.  Worst case scenario, adding a toggle to display the full menu bar in all gimp windows.
Comment 8 Michael Schumacher 2009-08-28 14:54:35 UTC
BTW, why is GIMP listed as "Perfect" in globalmenu's own application compatiblity list? http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/wiki/ApplicationCompatibility
Comment 9 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-28 14:59:31 UTC
Probably because they just did a quick check instead of actually seeing if it was /usable/.  All native gtk apps 'work', this is a matter of it only working when the image window is in focus.
Comment 10 Michael Schumacher 2009-08-28 15:14:17 UTC
Could you try this with GIT Master or 2.7.0? 

And it seems like this is documented in http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/issues/detail?id=300 already.
Comment 11 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-28 15:28:58 UTC
Well, not sure if it works in 2.7, but my GIMP install is hosed now..

ethan@home:~$ gimp
gimp: error while loading shared libraries: libgegl-0.1.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
ethan@home:~$ 

Installed from some dude's PPA..
Comment 12 Ethan Anderson 2009-08-28 15:30:24 UTC
Reinstalled package to no avail.  I'll just leave it removed for now.
Comment 13 Michael Natterer 2010-01-26 08:10:38 UTC
There is no API in gtk to properly do what globalmenu needs here, there
is not even a standard describing what apps should do. Globalmenu apparently
doesn't cope with non-dialog toplevel windows (gimp's dock windows). Is it
that unusual to have floating palettes? Heck, I haven't even heared about
globalmenu until this bug was filed.

Unless there is an API, or at least a standard telling what to do, I consider
globalmenu a hack that works by coincidence with "normal" gtk apps (whatever
that is).

Cloaing as WONTFIX.
Comment 14 Daniel Weinstein 2010-04-27 06:27:14 UTC
There is a fix to this problem, that should be incredibly simple:
Add an option  to show the menu bar in all windows.  Previous versions of GIMP had a menu bar in the toolbox window, as well as one in the document window; in this case you would just make them identical.
Comment 15 Michael Natterer 2010-04-27 07:04:12 UTC
We won't add hacks to GIMP in order to make it cope with extrernal hacks.
Comment 16 Ethan Anderson 2010-04-27 11:06:15 UTC
I've tested 2.7 series single window mode and it works fine, go ahead and close this.
Comment 17 Martin Nordholts 2010-04-27 15:34:23 UTC
I think we could consider changing the GIMP code to play more nicely with globalmenu, but we should certainly not put the responsibility to make this work on the user through an option. From a user point of view this stuff should just work without tweaking any options or settings.
Comment 18 Ethan Anderson 2010-04-28 03:14:42 UTC
Oh by the way, http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/359

Ubuntu Netbook now defaults to a global menu.
Comment 19 Michael Schumacher 2010-04-28 06:53:41 UTC
Ah, seems like they want to add a dedicated API and don't want to rely on hacks.
So there's probably no point in approaching this now?