Re: OT: Win 7... coming unpinned

Daniel Johnson stated in post 3tSdne5Lmcv7OGnXnZ2dnUVZ_tSdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
on 11/6/09 3:38 PM:

....
I hadn't noticed this; it illustrates a subtle difference between context
menus and jump lists. Context menus have short commands, and jump lists have
longer ones.

And icons are not the same (one does not have them for *that* item) and
capitalization is not the same. Now the question: is this the same for the
final release? If not then my complaint is rescinded.

It is indeed the same in the final release. They seem to have made jump-lists
and context menus slightly inconsistent.

Wording, capitalization and icons are different. What is the same? Well..
other than what they do.

This detail is pretty harmless, but it's part and parcel of jump lists: they
are a menu that looks different from a normal menu. A context menu, by
contrast, looks like a normal menu.

This is quite Apple-like: sacrificing consistency for looks. But this isn't
new: the XP Start Panel itself is an example of the same thing. This is just
a bit more of the same thing.

Where does Apple toss consistency of terms and capitalization?

That's penny ante stuff. Installing wood paneling on one of your flagship
apps- now that's a whole new order of inconsistency. :D

Not that I think it makes much sense, but it is a context-change to that
app. This is OS wide.

I did not say anything bad about the different look of the menus... that
helps build context and is not a bad thing as far as I can tell.

Then presumably the icons and the longer text are also not a bad thing, in
like vein.

Having menus look different to show different context, as they do with the
two menus I show, is fine. Having two commands which you have to work out
if they mean the same thing or not is not a good thing. As I said, though,
it is not like this is a deal-breaker for Win 7. It is a sign of not
thinking through details, but not a reason to run from the OS.

What may be said in Microsoft's defense is that they do show more restraint
that Apple. Jump list do look quite a lot like a menu; many of the
differences are additions, and the rest are subtle.

While it is, strictly speaking, gratuitous inconsistency, it's not remotely
in Time Machine's league.

Time Machine shows a major context-change. While the moving background is a
bit much, the UI is pretty good.

I do not think so, but even it if it were it is gratuitously inconsistent to
much higher degree than jump lists.

There are benefits to showing context changes... there is a difference
between user-based inconsistencies and arbitrary inconsistencies. For
example, the menus I show on Win 7 look different... seems users based to
show what the menu is associated with. Might not be as easy to tell if the
two were the exact same. But the wording only makes things confusing...
seems arbitrary to me.



--
[INSERT .SIG HERE]


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Win 7... coming unpinned
    ... jump-lists and context menus slightly inconsistent. ... Wording, capitalization and icons are different. ... Research shows that making changes in looks from one context to another ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Hook system mouse down?
    ... I am building my own Context Menu. ... menus when a user clicks somewhere outside of the popup menus. ... different version of msvsmon from the real remote debugging. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb)
  • Re: Strange case of the disappearing menus
    ... The toolbar vanishes too. ... > Autotext control to the Text/Fields menu. ... some shortcut menus have placeholders ... and are modified during run-time to fit the context. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: OT: Win 7... coming unpinned
    ... that the menus look different, but I have no problem with that (for reasons ... Surely that's the same context. ... It adds the phrase "this program" and the icon when the icon you got the ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: Cantor and the binary tree
    ... >>> You have shown that set theory is inconsistent. ... Congratulations. ... Not for maximal paths in maximal binary trees, ... In that context, there are infinitely more paths than ...
    (sci.math)