I'd like to discuss the size and general visual appearance of the application menu button in the Oxygen window decoration. Currently the application menu button is the same size as other buttons in the window title bar.
When looking at applications which draw a menu button into their client-side decorations (on platforms which allow that), e.g. Firefox or MS Office, however, one notices that the menu buttons are usually considerably larger and differently shaped than the other buttons in the title bar. This makes sense to me because a menu is usually more important and accessed more often than other title bar buttons, and thus should be visually more prominent and have a larger click area than other buttons.
Another problem I see with the current appearance is that users might not even recognize it as a menu button (unless they just switched from menu bar to menu
button and notice the new button).
Therefore I suggest to design a new appmenu button which is larger than the other buttons (most likely wider), and perhaps even write the application's name or simply "Menu" on it.
What do you guys think? What would make sense from an aesthetics perspective?

Something like this?
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/oxygen-a ... -with.html

Don't know what happened to the project, but it doesn't seem available on kde-look anymore.

Yes, I think something along these lines. I'd leave the definition of the exact look to the pros, though if the VDG thinks the above screenshot looks perfect and would propose to use exactly that, that's fine with me.

ivan wrote:Something like this?
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/oxygen-a ... -with.html

Don't know what happened to the project, but it doesn't seem available on kde-look anymore.

It was merged in kwin, and the style was changed to the current form. i dont know the reason, just that the style needs to be in this form. maybe google knows more, but i cant find all that

Yes, this is the way it should be.

I have no idea why it wasn't implemented like this, but one reason I would guess is because the screen shots there don't seem to provide any way to access the standard menu that is available for every window (with stay on top, move to desktop options etc. etc.). Perhaps these could be added as a right-click option, but a better solution IMO would be to merge the two fully with a dedicated Window Control subsection containing these options at the end.

I also think there needs to be an API that would allow application developers to have precise control over how the opened menu would look, so that it could be customised and tailored to be specific to the application. I think there should be a way for something like Firefox (as it currently looks on Windows) to implemented completely natively using standard Plasma controls (and yes I know Mozilla are abandoning it for the horrible and inferior Australis proposals now, but I think they were on to a winner here but abandoned it as is not a standard in the Windows OS after foolish obsessed Mac-first fashionistas seem to have taken the reign in their design team ) . The massive click target for a wide menu in a maximized at the top screen edge (massive Fitt's law benefit, and even bigger if you use the top-left corner) is objectively superior to that of the silly little spanner/wrench that Dolphin, rekonq etc. use as well as the tiny and small click-target of the "hamburger" menus being used in Chrome and soon, unfortunately, in Firefox too.

So what do we do about this?
I don't think it needs to be changed in Oxygen anymore, but it should be discussed and decided upon in order to be considered for the next windeco.

ivan wrote:Something like this?
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/oxygen-a ... -with.html

Don't know what happened to the project, but it doesn't seem available on kde-look anymore.

This is absolutely gorgeous imho .. it resolves so many of the issues with the current presentation. +1 for this idea.

[quote="paulm"I have no idea why it wasn't implemented like this, but one reason I would guess is because the screen shots there don't seem to provide any way to access the standard menu that is available for every window (with stay on top, move to desktop options etc. etc.)[/quote]

Look closely, the window menu is still there, behind the round button next to the application menu button.