Hi Tim,

yes, discoverability and good defaults are key. We should re-design the menus. Yet, it is a challenging endeavour. I read things about adaptive menus, tried them out in former MS Office versions ... such "cleverness" stands in the user's way if not done right. :-/ Maybe even does more harm than good.

The menus we have in Squeak do not work for daily usage - I suppose. You can browse them, discover new features, maybe recall a long forgotten one if you got stuck. Nevertheless, most of them got keyboard shortcuts and you should learn them. ...relying on those menus in the long term is tedious. :-(

Other environments have multiple kinds of menus: classic tool bars, pop-up menus, ribbon bars, floating versions of all these... labels in combination with icons, you can make more features available without annoying the user too much. Again, if all menu entries get an icon, the effect of icons is gone again. ...unless being REALLY GOOD icons ... which they usually aren't. :)

So, I hear you. I understand the issue with the status quo. I really would like to improve it someday.

Speaking of good defaults and means of configuration:


Best,
Marcel
Am 02.11.2017 21:12:16 schrieb tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org>:

> On 02-11-2017, at 1:07 PM, Marcel Taeumel wrote:
> Just type a word. It will filter the menu and help you focus

Yeah, but no, that doesn’t solve the over-complication problem. It helps *if* you already know what you want. It’s no use for discovery, nor much for muscle memory usage. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be available or indeed improved, but it is only a very small aspect of the whole issue.

tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
My computer NEVER cras



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