[josm-dev] Tools menu too long when plugins installed

[Ulf Lamping]

Am 27.11.2010 12:55, schrieb Frederik Ramm:
> Hi,
>
> Sebastian Klein wrote:
>> it has been reported, that with many plugins installed, the tools menu
>> grows such that some entries become invisible on a normal monitor.
>
> Maybe force plugins into a "Plugins" menu, where each can have exactly
> one sub-menu where it arranges its options? We could then also move the
> general "plugin" preference entry there, plus any plugin-specific
> preferences.
>
> This is quite common with other software that uses plugins.

You want something like the two filter menus in the Gimp, which is in 
fact just bad UI design. It creates a mess to find a function in the 
menu you want to use.

> We have this
> unusual situation with JOSM where plugins sort of merge into JOSM proper
> and the user doesn't necessarily know whether a certain menu option
> comes from the core or from one of the plugins.

This is quite common, you may not even notice it in other programs ;-)

> This has its advantages
> from the user's perspective (why should he care) but also causes
> problems ("well my JOSM has this menu entry, I don't know why yours
> doesn't... could be one of by 27 plugins?").

Sure, every solution has it's drawbacks. But what's the users interest? 
To know which menu item is caused by which plugin, or to intuitively 
find a functionality where a user expects it.


We might better think about ideas, how to group functionality in the 
menu, so it logically fits together.

Regards, ULFL

P.S: The current "randomly" placed menu separators are another 
(related?) thing to think about.