Re: [XBoard-devel] Menu organization

[Arun Persaud]

Hi

> I posted the following proposal on TalkChess for feedback.
> Not sure what I would have to do with a Windows menu for now.
> I think the control of auxiliary windows belongs in View more than n
> Windows.

AFAIK the Windows menu is for open Windows to get them to the front or
arrange them... perhaps not needed for XBoard...

As for the menu structures, see comments below... although I guess my
comments would mean changes in the code and not just rearranging of
entries...

> Main menu bar items:
> File
> Edit
> View
> Mode
> Action
> Engines
> Options
> Help
> 
> File menu:
> New Game
> New Shuffle Game...
> New Variant...

can't we just have one entry here (new game) and set the variant in the
mode menu? That is have a Mode entry: "Variant/Type..." and you can
choose there what type of game you play.

> ------------------------
> Load Game...
> Load Position...
> ------------------------
> Save Game...
> Save Position...
> ------------------------

in the long run it would be nice to just have a load/save and load
determines if it's a game or position on the content of the file or the
file extension. Similar for saving it would be nice to have an option in
the saving window to select game or position (and for example
automatically choose position if there is no history,etc) instead of
having two entries in this menu...

> Save as Diagram...
> ------------------------
> Quit
> 
> Edit menu:
> Copy Game to ClipBoard
> Copy Position to ClipBoard
> Copy GameList to ClipBoard
> ------------------------
> Paste Game from ClipBoard
> Paste Position from ClipBoard
> ------------------------
> Edit Tags
> Edit Comment
> Enter Username
> ------------------------
> Edit Game
> Edit Position
> ------------------------
> Revert
> Annotate
> Truncate
> ------------------------
> Backward
> Forward
> To Start
> To End
> 
> View menu:
> Show Engine Output
> Show Move History
> Show Eval Graph
> Show Game List
> ICS Input Box (XBoard-only)
> Open Chat Window
> Type In Move

I would get rid of the "Show" and "Open", since they are already in the
View I would just say "Engine Output", "Move History", etc. makes it
more consistent IMHO... can we combine ICS Input Box with type in move?
I guess you could type in a move into ICS box and it does the move and
sends it to the ICS and everything else would be handled as ICS input
(if in ICS mode), else just do the move test.

> Options menu:
> Flip View
> Swap Clocks
> Mute all Sounds

are these really the 3 most needed options? Else I would put them into
general or somewhere else... flip view I can understand, but the other
two I for example never use, switching the clocks, I actually find
confusing ;)

> ------------------------
> General...
> Sounds...
> ICS...
> Communications...
> ------------------------
> Load Game...
> Save Game...
> Game List...
> ------------------------
> Time Control...
> Adjudications...
> Common Engine...

Perhaps the engine setting from the engine menu should go into here...
and then we would have an engine section here (separted by ------)
or this should go into the engine settings

> GUI Book...
> Match...
> ------------------------
> Save Settings Now
> Save Settings on Exit

save settings on exit should go into general I would say

> Help Menu:
> Help...
> ------------------------
> About...
> ------------------------
> English
> Español
> Deutsch

Not sure if we really want an entry for each language.. I know that we
don't support that many at the moment, but in principle this could
become a very long list ;) I would say it would be better to just have a
help and show the default language the user is using or if not available
the english one and then of course have a section on how to change
languages in the help file.

just my two cents

Arun