Projects/Plasma/AppsMenuReorganization

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

• Lokalize
• OmegaT
• <dictionaries>

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

• Lokalize
• OmegaT

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:

• Freedesktop Menu Spec
• Desktop file spec

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.