My last posts promised a solution to the current 'bad menus' problem of
EAGLE. See the attached picture 'menutypes.png' for three possible
implementations of the schematics editor's German EDIT menu (minus the
icons and the shortcuts, which SHOULD appear, but which I didn't care to
recreate):
1. In the middle, the simplest solution: Just show structured,
grouped descriptions, nothing else. This is VERY nice for new
users, but does NOT provide ongoing experts with any information
about the names of underlying commands.
2. At the right, the same solution, but with additional FULL command
names. Here, the menus seem a bit long, and the English version
would show strange word duplications (e.g. 'Rotate ' or
'Swap gates '). COULD be done, but sort of suboptimal.
3. At the left, my favourite: Same as above, but with the SHORTEST
possible command syntax for each command. Here, new users get
their NICE descriptions, and ongoing experts get their syntax.
Even in English, this shouldn't look too weird (e.g.,
Using this left menu type, some schematic editor menus might look like
attached in 'schmenu.png'. Some items I do not REALLY like (e.g., the
item 'CAM processor' is not slef-explaining), and all of that is
debatable a million times, but at least the CONCEPT should be clear:
- Descriptive texts not showing ONLY cryptic commands
- Grouped items to help users choose
Whatever positioning and grouping can be thought of, the possibility is
VERY high that it will NOT be worse than EAGLE's current menu...
Andreas Weidner
