#2720 NORM Trial-3: Design for inactive options in action menus of palettes

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#2720: Design for inactive options in action menus of palettes
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 Reporter:  Eben              |       Owner:  Eben   
     Type:  task              |      Status:  new    
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  Trial-3
Component:  interface-design  |     Version:         
 Keywords:                    |    Verified:  0      
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 We need to come up with a firm specification for inactive actions on
 palettes.  The two basic choices we have are:

  - Render the option disabled by graying out the icon and text, and
 eliminating the rollover so it can't be selected
  - Omit the option from the list completely, so that only available
 actions appear

 I'd also like feedback from developers on the limits of GTK in this area,
 since I believe we're using a standard menu widget for this purpose.  I
 believe option one is supported by the widget, and I believe that option
 two should be possible since the menus can be dynamically populated when
 activated.  Still, there may be technical concerns here.  I'm also unsure
 if we'll ever see the case when the availability of an option changes
 while the palette is active.

 Option 2 seems a bit cleaner, since we won't waste space displaying
 options which aren't available.  On the other hand, option 1 is more
 consistent with current models, and also serves to indicate that the
 options exist even when they aren't accessible, which could be good in
 terms of discoverability.  Oh, and option 1 also preserves consistency:
 option 3 in the list is always option 3.

 Of course, we also need to support "toggle" options (eg. "Connect" becomes
 "Disconnect" etc...), but that's a separate issue.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/2720>
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