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From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Subject: File menu changes (suggestions)
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:25:53 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <MEEKKIABFKKDFJMPIOEBAELMCLAA.drew.adams@oracle.com> (raw)

Suggestions to change some File menu items. A few of the renamings might be
considered for this release.

1. Unsplit Windows is a very poor name. It doesn't give you a hint of what
it does; in particular, it doesn't suggest that the current window is the
only one that will remain displayed.

It should be named something like `Delete Other Windows' or simply
`One Window'.

2. Don't reference "buffer" or "file" in File menu items, when this just
refers to the current buffer/file (or the one that will become current). The
unreferenced object in a File menu item is understood to be the current
buffer/file. And the distinction between file and buffer is not needed here.

 - New File                    -> New (but Open is better - see 3, below)
 - Save (current buffer)       -> Save
 - Close (current buffer)      -> Close
 - Save Buffer As              -> Save As
 - Print Buffer                -> Print
 - PostScript Print Buffer     -> PostScript Print
 - Revert Buffer               -> Revert

People are used to all of these File commands in other applications. You
don't see "Save Page" or "Close Page" in Web-browsers or "Save File" in
other editors.

In particular:

a. Currently, there is an inconsistency wrt "Buffer" and "(current buffer)".
These should be made consistent, since the same thing (the current buffer)
is involved in each case. It is not as if one acted on the current buffer
and the other prompted for an existing buffer to act upon.

b. New File does not really create a new file; it opens a buffer (new or
existing) that can be saved to a file (new or existing). Not mentioning
"file" and "buffer" avoids the distinction, which doesn't matter here
anyway. Mentioning "file" and "buffer", and using "file" where it should be
"buffer", just misleads. So, New is better than New File (but see 3, below).


3. WRT 2b, it is true that the file or buffer opened need not in fact be
new, so even "New" is misleading. The problem arises because we need a name
to distinguish open-new-or-existing-buffer-for-new-or-existing-file from
Open File (existing file only). A better name for New would be just "Open".
Open File is technically "open existing file", but "Open File" is adequate
for this action, and it fits with Open Directory and Insert File - explicit
mention of "File" suggests an existing file here.


4. A better name for Revert is Reopen. Just as Paste is preferable to Yank
in a menu, so is Reopen preferable to Revert: more users will understand it
immediately.


5. Move all of the window and frame stuff to a new menu, "Frames". This menu
is analogous to the "Buffers" menu.

             reply	other threads:[~2005-06-19 23:25 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 96+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2005-06-19 23:25 Drew Adams [this message]
2005-06-20  4:56 ` File menu changes (suggestions) Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-20  7:03   ` David Kastrup
2005-06-20 16:53   ` Drew Adams
2005-06-20 20:37     ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-20 20:48       ` Drew Adams
2005-06-21  2:01     ` Richard Stallman
2005-06-21  7:59     ` Mathias Dahl
2005-06-21  9:19       ` Miles Bader
2005-06-26  4:46 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-26  5:29   ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-26 22:42     ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-26 22:52       ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-26 23:13       ` Drew Adams
2005-06-27  7:20         ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27  7:37       ` Kim F. Storm
2005-06-27  9:25         ` Miles Bader
2005-06-27 13:29           ` David Kastrup
2005-06-28  4:16         ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-26 18:53   ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-26 18:00     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-26 19:09       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-26 18:20         ` Drew Adams
2005-06-26 19:41           ` John S. Yates, Jr.
     [not found]             ` <42BF0E53.2020505@student.lu.se>
2005-06-27 12:51               ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-27 13:31                 ` David Kastrup
2005-06-27 17:47                 ` Robert J. Chassell
2005-06-28  1:57                   ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-27 13:24           ` David Kastrup
2005-06-27 16:18             ` Drew Adams
2005-06-27 18:44             ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27 18:13               ` Drew Adams
2005-06-27 22:19                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27 22:33                   ` Drew Adams
2005-06-28  4:53                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-28  6:36                       ` David Kastrup
2005-06-26 18:30     ` Jason Rumney
2005-06-27  2:06       ` Miles Bader
2005-06-27  7:24         ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27  6:31           ` Miles Bader
2005-06-27 13:26             ` David Kastrup
2005-06-27 18:26               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27  9:19         ` Jason Rumney
2005-06-27  9:41           ` Miles Bader
2005-06-27 18:25             ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27 20:05               ` David Kastrup
2005-06-27 20:47                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-27 21:40                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27  5:38     ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-27  7:24       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-27 11:40         ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-27 13:26           ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-27 18:41             ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]               ` <42C044F3.60606@student.lu.se>
     [not found]                 ` <uzmtbeam9.fsf@gnu.org>
2005-06-27 21:06                   ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-28 18:46               ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-28 18:54                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-29 16:05                 ` Sticks! (was: File menu changes (suggestions)) Drew Adams
2005-06-28  4:17             ` File menu changes (suggestions) Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-28  6:39               ` David Kastrup
2005-06-28  5:28   ` Stefan Monnier
2005-06-28  7:17     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-28 10:05     ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-30 21:30       ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-30 22:15         ` Miles Bader
2005-07-01 22:45           ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-07-02  2:32             ` Miles Bader
2005-06-28 15:28     ` Drew Adams
2005-06-28 16:01       ` Lennart Borgman
2005-06-28 19:46     ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-28 21:36       ` Miles Bader
2005-06-28 22:00         ` David Kastrup
2005-06-30  7:40           ` Miles Bader
2005-06-29  3:39         ` Stefan Monnier
2005-06-29  4:45           ` Miles Bader
2005-06-29 18:51             ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-29 23:46               ` Miles Bader
2005-06-30  1:44           ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-30  5:38           ` David Kastrup
2005-06-29 20:43         ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-07-01  1:45     ` public
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2005-06-21 15:51 File menu changes (suggestions) / Options menu David Reitter
2005-06-22 12:32 ` File menu changes (suggestions) John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-23  0:46   ` Miles Bader
2005-06-23  2:26     ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-23  2:31       ` Miles Bader
2005-06-23 11:18         ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-23 11:39           ` Miles Bader
2005-06-24  5:36           ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-25  1:24             ` John S. Yates, Jr.
2005-06-25 16:40               ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-24 10:10           ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-06-26 19:04 David Reitter
2005-06-27  5:37 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-06-27  8:04 LENNART BORGMAN
2005-06-27  9:24 ` Miles Bader
2005-06-27 20:01   ` Johan Bockgård
2005-06-30  8:53 LENNART BORGMAN

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