On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Luke -Jr <luke@dashjr.org> wrote:
On Thursday 13 March 2008, Leo Mauler wrote:
> *Default* KDE has:
>
> 1) A "Start" menu in the lower left corner, which is
> very similar to Windows.

Hm, I wonder why. Obviously, the left is logical for left-to-right languages.
Which means that even if we assume there are no other reasons for top/bottom,
the choice is between being similar to another common OS and use the bottom,
or using the top just to be not Windows.
What reasons are there to use the top over the bottom?

On my Windows PC for work, I moved the taskbar so it's vertical, putting the Start button at the top.  This way, if I have windows that I've moved such that the title bar (the handle you use to move the thing) is still onscreen, but the bottom/side runs offscreen, it doesn't cover the Start button or taskbar.


Again, only similar to the extent that is logical.

There are 5 places that it's very easy to put your mouse cursor:  The four corners of the screen, and where it already is.  The four edges provide more places that are fairly easy to get to, as the Mac's "mile high menu" attests.  Good GUI design puts the things you want to get to the most often in the four corners, with the most frequent in the upper left (right for RTL languages) corner, second in the lower left, third in the upper right, and fourth in the lower right, and puts popup dialog boxes wherever your cursor already is, with the cursor positioned over, the choice that won't break anything if you accidentally click it.