[ale] Slackware to drop Gnome?

[David Corbin]

On Wednesday 13 October 2004 10:09 am, Michael D. Hirsch wrote:
> On Tuesday 12 October 2004 04:47 pm, David Corbin wrote:
> > On Monday 11 October 2004 10:37 pm, aaron wrote:
> > > The second is more on the Fitts law aspect (at least as Michael Hirsch
> > > has explained it to me), and has to do with the idea that items on the
> > > edges of the interface area are infinite in size; once the pointer hits
> > > the edge it can't go any further, even if you continue roll the mouse
> > > in that edge direction forever. Any interface targets at the far edges
> > > are, in effect, the biggest possible targets and the easiest to hit.  I
> > > would add that the top edge is probably the most logical for text menu
> > > items, because all common written languages read top to bottom, even
> > > those that may also read right to left.
> >
> > I can understand this reasoning, and it does make sense.  But I thought
> > Fitt's law was that distance was a major factor.   Putting the menubar
> > outside the application is increasing my distance....
>
> Distance and area.  time = a + b*log(distance/area + 1) is the exact
> formula, I believe.  So with an infinitely large button, the distance
> doesn't matter.
>
> In fact, most people I know tend to use maximized windows for most
> important tasks.  I use my java IDE maximized, people who work in word
> processors usually maximize them, etc.  In such a case the menu bar is
> already at the top of the screen, but the buttons are not on the actual
> boundary, so they are small.  Putting the menubar at the top makes almost
> no difference in the distance, which was already large, but a huge
> difference in the area of the buttons, which go from small to effectively
> infinite.


Ah... that makes a difference.  I'm going to give it a try.  Now, when I'm 
using a non-KDE app, it puts something else (a generic KDE menu, I think) 
there.  Anyway to have it put nothing if the app is not compliant?

David
>
> Michael
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