Re: File menu changes (suggestions)

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:25:53 -0700
> 
> 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.

We refer to the buffer on purpose: we want users to see Emacs
terminology even in the menus, and even when the menus are following
established UI guidelines and use standard entries like "New" and
"Close".

> a. Currently, there is an inconsistency wrt "Buffer" and "(current buffer)".

That's not an inconsistency: in the first case, "Buffer" is part of
the command name; in the second, it's a minor comment about the
command's operation.

> New is better than New File (but see 3, below).

No, it is not better, since it doesn't say what new entity is created.
Other GUI programs have a submenu there or work only with one type of
entities (or just leave it vague, which we didn't want to do).

> 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".

"New" is a standard entry in the "File" menu, so I don't think
renaming it to (a non-standard) "Open" is a good idea.

> 4. A better name for Revert is Reopen.

Do you know of any other GUI applications that have such a menu
entry?

> 5. Move all of the window and frame stuff to a new menu, "Frames".

Not good: we have a crammed menu bar already, adding more top-level
items would only make things worse with no real advantage.