From: Martin F. <mar...@vr...> - 2006-01-23 17:34:23
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Hi there, in the past I had given much thought to a possible new menu structure for XTC. As mentioned in other messages, the separation between Commands and Tools wasn't obvious. I think the following structure for the main menu would make more sense: File: basically as-is, but move export/import hereto. Price List etc. would be moved to a different place (see below). Edit: also mostly as is View: mostly as is Add: new menu item, add everything to the layout that relates to layout planning ( track, turntables, structures, ...) Draw: new menu item, all functions that relate to the drawing of geometric primitives ( lines, etc. ) Change: new menu item, everything that is related to modification of existing components (move, rotate, elevation) Is very similar to Edit. Throwing both together into one menu would create a too long list, so some separation seems necessary Manage: administrative functions, adding custom components, price list etc. and then there would be Options, Help, Macro and Windows like today. I'm writing this from work, so I don't have my notes handy. But hopefully you get the idea. Also I think I'd remove almost everything from the context menus ( right click or shift right click ). While context menus can be helpful, they should be restricted to the absolutely necessary. Then I started implementing this structure. As initialization of the menu is dispersed over many source modules and functions this turned out to be a bigger piece of work than expected. It looks like I've bitten off too much :-(. Also I had fun doing some real modelrailroading in the past few days. So far I didn't commit any of these changes as I'm reluctant to commit something half done. I'll resume working on the changes these days. I just wanted to throw this in as an idea for the further work. Even if we decide to use a different structure, I think my modifications to clean up the code will be helpful for other changes to the menus. Regards Martin |