Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: GIMP and Photoshop user interfaces (was: Re: Distros
 specifically designed for children)
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 08:48:26 -0700
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On Wed, 4 Jun 2025 00:15:36 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

> I fired up GIMP 3 and had a quick look round at several dialogs. I
> simply could not find any examples of what you=E2=80=99re talking about.

I'll be damned - looks like they *finally* started paying attention to
this in v.3. Only took 'em 27 years!

> It does still take advantage of Fitts=E2=80=99 Law though, doesn=E2=80=99=
t it. Is
> there some other point to context menus?

Fitts' Law is exactly what makes such a thing comically redundant: the
main menu is *already there,* right within mouse-flick range. Having a
duplicate of it pop up when you right-click in the document area would
be pointless even if it *weren't* so extensive as to be unwieldy when
hanging off the mouse pointer.

The true use of context menus is right there in the name: they should
provide a contextually-appropriate selection of actions based on the
thing clicked on (e.g. vertices of a polygonal-select outline) and/or
the current mode (alternate operations for the current tool.) If you're
not gonna bother doing that, it'd be more sensible to skip the menu
altogether and just use right-click as a fixed alternate function for
the current tool or somesuch.