GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 712357
Should have a standard menubar for non GNOME3 environments
Last modified: 2018-05-24 18:01:52 UTC
Using rhythmbox 3.0.1 on Ubuntu 13.10. The new design of GNOME applications to use an appmenu only is working fine under gnome-shell but not so much on other desktops/OSes (it makes those apps inconsistents with everything else). Since rhythmbox is used out of GNOME3, would it be possible to have a standard menubar and display it out of gnome-shell? Other GNOME softwares already have similar logic, see e.g gedit: https://git.gnome.org/browse/gedit/commit/?id=255460c209105eadcaedb245ddfd6295cef06128 " /* We have three cases: * - GNOME 3: show-app-menu true, show-menubar false -> use the app menu * - Unity, OSX: show-app-menu and show-menubar true -> use the normal menu * - Other WM, Windows: show-app-menu and show-menubar false -> use the normal menu */"
There isn't really anything left to put in a menu bar. There's a single menu that either shows up as the app menu or is made accessible through a menu button on the toolbar.
What about the "view" menu item that can be expanded? i alsho have "tools" item with an arrow indicating that it can be expanded but it cannot and clicking on it does nothing - I am not sure if that is a Ubuntu bug or something else.
You really want a whole menu bar for ~10 menu items in two menus?
Well, yes. And as for Ubuntu, the more the better. I am not sure what the old structure was (I only know the new one confuses me and is slower to use), but I for example also lack playing controls. I do not know if you are familiar with the HUD concept, but it is a program that lets you easily access any menu item via keyboard. This is broken by recent GNOME design to trim the menu as much as possible because the menu entries are just no longer there. Now I understand that is a design decision. I disagree with it, but let's agree to disagree on that. However, there are users of rhythmbox outside of GNOME 3 (and Gnome Shell) that have reduced usability of Rhythmbo due to this decision. Keeping an option for them to use the classical menu structure would be greatly appreciated.
@Jonathan: I can try asking the Ubuntu design team what they think would be a good layout for the menubar if that's useful There seems to be enough content there to have an useful menubar.. "Music Edit View (Tools) Help" for example * Music: could have the current "add music", "quit" and probably a few items that got removed (e.g "connect to...") * Edit has a menu in the middle of the UI that could be re-used * View, the current appmenu has enough items to justify a menu * Tools (displayed if there is any content) * Help: standard about/help items What do you think?
> There's a single menu that either shows up as the app menu or is made accessible through a menu button on the toolbar That's one of the current approch, the user testing done by Canonical showed that users are confused by having different actions split this way. Some things are in the menu, some are in the "edit" popdown menu in the software itself (same problem that then "cog" menus in e.g nautilus) and users don't know where to look, keep looking at the wrong place. The traditional menus might not be perfect but they have some values
(In reply to comment #2) > What about the "view" menu item that can be expanded? i alsho have "tools" item > with an arrow indicating that it can be expanded but it cannot and clicking on > it does nothing - I am not sure if that is a Ubuntu bug or something else. That's Bug #715193
Created attachment 270566 [details] [review] shell: make play-{shuffle,repeat} proper toggle actions Remove their unused boolean parameter and toggle them when activating, so that they can be used in menus.
Created attachment 270567 [details] [review] Restore traditional menu bar for desktops that show it
Do you actually want the old menu bar back just as it was? Why not put at least a little bit of thought into it?
Yes, for now I just wanted to restore old functionality that was working fine for a long time. I'll ask for some design input, though. Do you have any suggestions on how to change it?
Reviewing the menus in Ubuntu Trusty, I see three main issues: * "Music" could easily be a title for any of the menus except "Help", and is therefore not a good title. "File" would be more understandable to people familiar with the standard menu structure. * "Party Mode" is a bit mysterious, and misleading to anyone who has used Party Shuffle (a.k.a. iTunes DJ) in iTunes. "Full Screen" would be much clearer. * The separator above "Tools" > "Plugins..." should be present only when there is at least one plugin. There are other oddities, e.g. "Add Music" and "Move to the Rubbish Bin" being in different menus, and the Windows-95-inspired "Help" > "Contents" item. But those are common across Gnome apps and so might be better left alone.
(In reply to comment #12) > Reviewing the menus in Ubuntu Trusty, I see three main issues: > > * "Music" could easily be a title for any of the menus except "Help", and is > therefore not a good title. "File" would be more understandable to people > familiar with the standard menu structure This is one of the many reasons I wanted to get rid of the menu bar. > * "Party Mode" is a bit mysterious, and misleading to anyone who has used Party > Shuffle (a.k.a. iTunes DJ) in iTunes. "Full Screen" would be much clearer. Remove it from the menu if that's a concern. It's not an important feature. > * The separator above "Tools" > "Plugins..." should be present only when there > is at least one plugin. > There are other oddities, e.g. "Add Music" and "Move to the Rubbish Bin" being > in different menus, and the Windows-95-inspired "Help" > "Contents" item. But > those are common across Gnome apps and so might be better left alone. Some more things: - "check for new devices" is a waste of space - there are very limited circumstances in which it could possibly do anything useful, none of which apply to current linux desktops - the entire "control" menu is useless, it just duplicates the contents of the header - that's not how you spell 'quit'
> Remove it from the menu if that's a concern. It's not an important feature. > - the entire "control" menu is useless, it just duplicates the contents of the header But if they are removed, they will not be accessible with the HUD.
(In reply to comment #14) > But if they are removed, they will not be accessible with the HUD. What HUD are you talking about here?
> What HUD are you talking about here? Unity technology that allows you to use the items in the menus with the keyboard (just press alt, type a few characters of the item in the menu and it will search it for you - it is much quicker then going with F10 and arrows). Google for hud unity. Also, if an item is kept in the menu, it can easily be assigned a different shortcut - or has that functionality been removed in newer versions of GTK?
(In reply to comment #16) > > What HUD are you talking about here? > Unity technology that allows you to use the items in the menus with the > keyboard (just press alt, type a few characters of the item in the menu and it > will search it for you - it is much quicker then going with F10 and arrows). Do you actually use this? Does your keyboard not have media control keys? > Also, if an item is kept in the menu, it can easily be assigned a different > shortcut - or has that functionality been removed in newer versions of GTK? Pretty sure this got disabled in rhythmbox as part of the gmenu changes.
(In reply to comment #13) > - the entire "control" menu is useless, it just duplicates the contents of the > header Menubars usually list all available actions of a program, even if they also appear in another place. Also, having the control menu helps discovering keyboard shortcuts.
Created attachment 271726 [details] [review] Restore traditional menu bar for desktops that show it Thanks for your suggestions. Renamed "Music" to "File", "Party Mode" to "Fullscreen", and "Close" to "Quit". Also removed "Check for new Devices".
Created attachment 271737 [details] [review] Restore traditional menu bar for desktops that show it Wrap "Plugins…" menu item in a section.
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/rhythmbox/issues/1310.