[Geany-devel] Plugins Guidance

[Matthew Brush]

On 12-02-22 04:48 PM, Lex Trotman wrote:
> On 23 February 2012 01:13, Colomban Wendling<lists.ban at herbesfolles.org>  wrote:
>> Le 21/02/2012 05:15, Lex Trotman a écrit :
>>> [...]
>>> 2. don't spread menu items through the Geany menus, users don't know
>>> where to look and if several plugins add things to the same place the
>>> menu may become unworkable.  You don't know what other plugins the
>>> user will enable at the same time.
>>
>> I'm not sure about this one either, though I understand that too many
>> items everywhere may become a problem.
>>
>> But if the plugin provides a feature like, say, uniqueness (ref. thread
>> in the general ml), the menu would better fit in edit->format or
>> something;  and e.g. GeanyGenDoc places an item in "editor context
>> menu"->insert.
>
> Well, its only the plugin developers idea of where it "belongs",
> personally I would not want uniqueness in format.  Also if we change
> the Geany menu all the plugins have to scramble to fix themselves.
>

We could use GtkUIManager more, it's precisely what it's used for (ex. 
in Gedit), AFAIK.

>> IMO this makes the UI better than fulfilling the tools menu with various
>> stuff, since it's the "appropriate place" for such an item.
>
> Just try getting agreement on "appropriate", its a bikeshed.  Unless
> the plugin has a preference to choose tools or somewhere else.
>

That's what HIGs are for, and common sense even :)

>>
>> I understand that if 10k plugins adds items in various menus it'd start
>> to be annoying, but OTOH, is a tool menu with 10k items really better?
>
> Well, at least its isolated and the usability of the rest of Geany
> isn't impacted.
>
> I don't think that there is a clear cut solution, but IMHO on balance
> it is better to keep the mess constrained to one place.
>

IMO, if it's a simple plugin and provides a generic editor feature Geany 
is missing, it would be fine to put it in the corresponding menu (ex. 
Edit->Format->Remove Duplicate Lines), but if it's a big plugin with 
lots of menu items, even if they fit better in the regular menus, they 
should still be put in a submenu inside the Tools menu. That's my 
opinion anyway.

Cheers,
Matthew Brush