Replace right click

[ghost]

what if it could replace right click anywhere.
So it reads the options that would appear in the classic list popup, and instead of that popup list which is used since forever, this opens with the same choices.

[AlexVSharp]

Somehow I'm amazed nobody suggested this before... or maybe they did I just couldn't find it?

Anyway, I believe it a great idea if gnome-pie was to replace the classic context menu. There use to be a Firefox extension that did something similar (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/radialcontext-mz/) but unfortunately was discontinued. Now I'm thinking such a feature would be very interesting to affected the whole desktop!

[DreadKnight]

This would be mind blowing :)

[Schneegans]

Well, if there is a coder out there who is capable of doing such nifty stuff as exporting the context menu of an arbitrary application --- let me know :D I'm not sure, but probably that's impossible at all... at least this sounds really difficult. And I'm seeing some problems:

• context menus are text-based, gnome-pie is icon-based --- there must be some possibility of displaying a text for each slice directly at the slice...
• some context menus are really long (GIMP for example), some parts of it are likely to be hidden off-screen...
• what's about menu items which are radio-buttons / check-boxes / etc.?

[rtraverso86]

And what about showing up the circle when right-clicking on the empty space in the gnome desktop? Would that be more feasible? I don't know anything about the gnome 3 api.
This would be a starting point.

[AlexVSharp]

If I may, there is absolutely no need to cover "every" application there ever was. The way I see it there are only certain places that are in everyday use: the desktop, file manager and web browser. This would be a good starting point as all of them have the basic copy/cut/paste commands that I think should be implemented first. Later on more can be added based on research what people mostly use, and there could even be a way to "customise" and add additional controls, maybe even make new "sub-commands" (think sub-menu on CairoDock only for commands).

Artwork is optional. It can be icons which I'm certain many will want to contribute, or it can be some fancy text. Radio-buttons and other various controls could work like toggle switches. The main point is to make a useful and beautiful replacement for the everyday context menu. From a designers pov, I myself could probably come up with some mock-ups about how to make this a quick and efficient replacement for the context, yet I'm no programmer. That would be up to somebody else’s good will.

Edit: As far as coding goes, and this is a long shot, but since the developers who are working on forking Gnome2 (Mate) will eventually want to "evolve" it, maybe sometime in the future they'd be interested in integrating a "gnome-command-pie" into the desktop? Just sayin', but If that was the case then perhaps they would lend a hand if the coding gets really tough?

[ghost]

i am not an expert either, but I programmed something for android or school projects. Vala is the first time i hear but it seems pretty much the same.
The only issue I see is capturing choices from list, and send the command we choose back to where the list send it. I have no idea how to intercept with these stuff.
if we know that, we could either run the command somehow that returns the choices or let it load all the choices, and just before showing the list, we stop it and read them.
Create a new pie instantly just to show it.
As for the lots and lots of choices, to begin with we could make it up to ten choices for example. otherwise load the list.
This would be a good start.

[thoemy]

Maybe loading a GTK module like gnome-globalmenu allows the context menus to be exported or intercepted.

[Schneegans]

I just discovered a recent post by DanRabbit which expresses all concerns I raise over this issue.

http://elementaryos.org/journal/argument-against-pie-menus

[AlexVSharp]

I just checked it out. I believe a good designer can come up with solutions for all of his arguments. The only point I (partially) agree upon is about not being able to adopt the pie for "all" context functions. Hence this is why I suggested putting in just the basics while adding a customisation option, though someone could surly come up with a solution for that as well, imo.

Why not host an online designers' challenge to see if someone comes up with anything interesting?
Might be worth the effort. There's nothing to lose while it could prove quite beneficial to the project.

[Schneegans]

Sadly I've not much time these days to work on Gnome-Pie and similar projects, but I wrote my Bachelor thesis (http://www.simonschneegans.de/?p=699) on this issue and am about to create a new version of Gnome-Pie (2.0!) which will use its own library, called OpenPie (project already started: https://github.com/Simmesimme/OpenPie)

This library will enable application developers to use Pie-Menus in their projects. Hopefully there will be time to work on this project soon!

[Schneegans]

I have actually released Fly-Pie about a year ago. It supports opening menus via a D-Bus protocol, so each application (e.g. Firefox) could implement support for Fly-Pie. So it should be possible to create an extension for Firefox which opens a Fly-Pie menu for the context menu!

As Gnome-Pie is now in low-maintanance-mode, I won't have the time to implement something like this here. But if you're using GNOME Shell and if you are still interested in this project, you could try out Fly-Pie.