Projects/Plasma/AppsMenuReorganization

From KDE TechBase

Apps Menu Structure Proposal. I'd like to make apps menu more fine-grained by introducing submenus

Internet

Browsing

  • Konqueror
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Akregator

File download and sharing

  • aMule
  • KTorrent
  • KGet
  • KFtpGrabber

Communication

  • KMail
  • Kopete
  • Konversation
  • Kontact
  • KAddressBook
  • Knode

Connectivity

  • KPPP
  • KRDC
  • KRFB
  • networkmanager
  • <monitoring apps?>

Multimedia

Playing and Management

  • amarok
  • <videoplayers>
  • <tag editors>

Creation and editing

  • Kino
  • cinelerra
  • LiVES
  • Open Movie Editor
  • kdenlive
  • Audacity
  • Wink screencasting

Graphics

Viewing and Management

  • Okular
  • Gwenview
  • Digikam

Creation and editing

  • Krita
  • Kolourpaint
  • Gimp
  • Blender
  • Inkscape

Desktop publishing

  • scribus
  • kile
  • lyx

Education

  • Blinken

Lingustic

  • KHangMan
  • KWordQuiz
  • Parley

Math

  • KmPlot
  • KAlgebra
  • Kig

Science

  • KStars
  • Kalzium
  • KTurtle
  • Step

Office

  • k3b
  • Okular
  • Kwrite

Time management and Work Organization

  • KOrganizer
  • KTimeTracker (remove from menu -- present as plasmoid)
  • Kalarm (remove from menu -- present as plasmoid?)
  • KNotes
  • kontact
  • <Syncing apps>

Accounting

  • ?

OpenOffice.org

  • <openoffice apps>

KOffice

  • <koffice apps>

Desktop publishing

  • scribus
  • kile
  • lyx

Translation

System Tools

  • dolphin
  • Konsole
  • Strigi search
  • k3b
  • <Accessibility apps>

Monitor

  • KSysGuard
  • KSystemLog

Disc tools

  • gparted
  • filelight
  • <backup app>

Security

  • kwallet
  • klamav

Configuration

  • systemsettings
  • yast
  • <...>

Engineering

  • kompare

Programming

  • KDevelop
  • KCachegrind
  • <Version control tools?>

Web-development

  • Quanta

Translation

CAD

Math

Explanation

  • if several apps fulfill the same function (i.e. konqueror, opera, firefox), then their title should be in form of %function% - %appname%: "Web-browser - Konqueror", and they should be listed consequently
  • We need special entries in .desktop files determining the priority (Menu-Priority, Menu-Priority-KDE, Menu-Priority-Gnome).
    • Because the order is important
    • apps with Menu-Priotity above 100 constant could be visually separated by the line (they are the main apps in the category)
    • apps with Menu-Priotity below 10 may be hidden at all (i.e. they are rarely used by an average user)
    • If category has only 1 item, the item should be displayed instead of category
    • Statistics is needed for this (simple voting?)
  • 'Utilities' category isn't needed at all. For example, 'root terminal' should be in System.
  • Plasmoids: a lot of small apps need to be turned into plasmoids.
    • charselect should be callable from anywhere but K-Menu
    • kcalc -- the same
    • dictionary applet

I like the way desktop widgets are displayed in Mac OS X (easy accessible any moment - e.g. clock, calendar, calc)


Alternatively, instead of 'Office' we could use 'Desktop Publishing', putting 'Groupware (Kontact)' into 'Internet' +merge 'Graphics' to 'Multimedia':

  • Multimedia
  • k3b
    • Music
      • Play and Manage (amarok, tag editors)
      • Create and edit (Audacity)
    • Video
      • Play
      • Create and edit (kino, etc)
    • Graphics
      • View and Manage (Gwenview, Digikam)
      • Create and edit (Krita, Kolourpaint, Gimp)


Links:


Critisism I recieved from kde-devel@ so far:

  • .... submenus are bad. They do not seem very usable to me, especially when the structure is not evident: ...
    • so it's better to look through all 10-20 entries (possibly in in each

category) before finding app that you need?

    • there should be no more then ~5 items in each category
  • This breaks traditional alphabetical order...
    • alphabetical order is of small value when user doesnt know the name of the

app he/she is looking for.

  • Somehow 11 items seems better than 4 submenus
    • but I wrote only few apps, in real life there will be more apps


And they don't believe that the menu is for newcomers, experienced users use 'Search' field anyway.

Comment: Please don't do this. I just discovered this confusion is on purpose and not by accident. We're reverting this in our Kubuntu packages. I'd rather not carry a diff from upstream, but we are not going to ship this.

Comment: normally I would think submenus are bad, but what if it were possible to only have a submenu appear if there is more than one app in a particular category? Much in tha same way a main category doesn't appear in the main menu unless there is a menu item there. just a random thought.