Workspace Menu

Mike's Notes

Working draft for the outline of the workspace menu. Testing now, all subject to change.

Update 11/12/2025

The successful tests have led to changes to the engine, creating the tab menus.

Resources

• https://bettersolutions.com/word/ribbon/updates.htm
• https://www.blog.ajabbi.com/2025/10/workspace-mvp.html
• https://cloud.ajabbi.com/eng/9/
• https://metroui.org.ua/
• https://v5.metroui.org.ua/components/ribbon-menu/
• https://htmx.org/reference/
• https://www.blog.ajabbi.com/2025/09/the-rise-and-fall-of-standard-user.html
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/contextual-menus-guidelines/
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tabs-used-right/

References

• Reference

Repository

• Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
• Home > Handbook > 

Last Updated

11/12/2025

Workspace Menu

By: Mike Peters

On a Sandy Beach: 30/10/2025

Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

Every Workspace comes with several types of menus (explained here for left-to-right writing systems)

• Every workspace has 3 Standard 1 menus to the left.
• Each workspace has some unique Workspace-specific menus.
• Some workspaces have one or more Context menus.
• Every workspace has 3 Standard 2 menus to the right.

Menu types

• Standard 1
• Home
• File
• Edit
• Workspace-specific
• Arrange
• Bookmarks
• Design
• Layout
• Presentation
• Network
• Translate
• etc
• Context
• Data Model 
• Import Data
• Schema
• Freight Consignment
• etc
• Standard 2
• View
• Window
• Help

Menu hierarchy example

• Home (Standard 1)
• Dashboard
• Preferences
• Workspaces
• 
  
• File (Standard 1)
• New
• Open
• ---------------
• Close
• Save
• Save As
• Revert
• Delete
• ---------------
• Page setup
• Print
• ---------------
• Info
• Versions
• Import
• Export
• ---------------
• Exit
• Edit (Standard 1)
• Cut
• Copy
• Paste
• Clear
• Select All
• ---------------
• Show Clipboard
• --------------------------------------------------------
• Design (Workspace-specific)
• Font
• Font Type
• Font Size
• Paragraph
• Style
• Editing
• Bookmarks (Workspace-specific)
• 
  
• Arrange (Workspace-specific)
•  
• --------------------------------------------------------
• Context 1 (Context)
• 
  
• Context 2 (Context)
• 
  
• Context 3 (Context)
• 
  
• --------------------------------------------------------
• View (Standard 2)
• Show
• Zoom
• Window (Standard 2)
• Dashboard
• Arrange
• Workspace
• Settings
• Language
• Acessibility
• Time Zone
• Updates
• Help (Standard 2)
• Help
• Feedback
• Roadmap
• Vote
• Feature Request
• Support
• Forum
• Chat
• Office Hours
• Contact
• Training
• Docs
• How-to-guide
• Tutorials
• Reference
• About Pipi

Menu Config Database

Already built and tested. Stores all tab and tool definitions.

Layout options

The workspace menu UI will come in several layout options, mirroring popular platforms. People will be able to choose whatever they prefer in settings. DevOps account developers will be able to create more options for users to choose from. A quick survey of layout looks includes;

• "Ribbon"
• "Like Google Workspace"
• Pipi 4
• "Like Adobe"
• "Like Service Now"
• "Like Zoho"
• "Like Odoo"
• "Like Netsuite"
• Accordions for mobile

I personally prefer minimalist.

Accessibility

There will be menu UI options for screen readers, braille, and other accessibility features.

Ribbon layout

I'm working on the static ribbon version of the workspace menu. The CSS and working versions will use MetroUI CSS and HTMX.

The workspace "ribbon-like" menu and tabs roughly follow standard conventions used by other software, so people don't get lost. With 3 context tabs reserved for any situation. The first draft will be used for running experiments.

What's next

Replace all 3,800 HTML Workspace files with the changes.

Lots of trial-and-error experimenting follows. You can watch by visiting the workspace mockup.

The design system docs will need to be updated.

Building a Devops Engine

Mike's Notes

Here are some working notes from my current job on Pipi 9.

Resources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps_toolchain
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
• https://developer.ajabbi.com/eng/9/report/roadmap.html
• https://www.blog.ajabbi.com/2024/12/pipi-builld-roadmap.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectives_and_key_results
• https://itrevolution.com/product/the-devops-handbook-second-edition/
• https://www.blog.ajabbi.com/2019/03/next-on-list-is-devops.html

References

• Reference

Repository

• Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
• Home > Handbook > 

Last Updated

17/05/2025

Building a Devops Engine

By: Mike Peters

On a Sandy Beach: 22/02/2025

Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

Tonight, I started back on the DevOps Engine (dvp) after several years of absence (March 2023, to be exact).

The engine is based on The DevOps Handbook, which was written by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis and published by IT Revolution.

"A DevOps toolchain is a set or combination of tools that aid in delivering, developing, and managing software applications throughout the systems development life cycle, as coordinated by an organisation that uses DevOps practices.

Generally, DevOps tools fit into one or more activities that support specific DevOps initiatives: Plan, Create, Verify, Package, Release, Configure, Monitor, and Version Control." - Wikipedia.

First, I had to solve many other dependencies to determine what needed to be done on this engine. Then, in December 2024, I could create a reasonable roadmap for Pipi, which has been made public and works.

I'm using the published roadmap as if it were a product of the DevOps Engine, and I'm working backwards to correct the necessary process model.

The key priorities are high quality, fast flow speed and automation.

The data model is designed to maximise flow.

Everything is pinned back to the NameSpace Engine (nsp), and any rendering uses the existing working engines.

There is a constant interdependency between these engines, which maintain each other.

The DevOps Engine deals with flow. Each of the 8 steps will have its own engine, often working with other engines, such as the existing Feature Flag Engine or the Canary Engine.

I am already tweaking the roadmap, replacing "Goal" with "Function" and "OKR" (Objective and Key Results).

The Versioning Engine (ver) will also be impacted, as each engine's version increments with DevOps updates and flows onto Pipi's versioning.

Version logging has been off since Pipi 7 and will be turned on once automation is in place. I don't use version control; I keep dated drawings in ring binders. However, version control will become necessary as complexity increases, especially when teams are established.

Here are some of the initial options for the model in the DevOps Engine.

Options

• WBS
• Step
• Priority
• Flow Status
• Started
• Completed
• Time Taken
• Verb
• Function
• OKR
• Scope
• Task
• Assigned
• WIP
• Batch Size
• % Resource Busy

WBS

Example: "1.2".

Step

1. Plan
2. Code
3. Build
4. Test
5. Release
6. Deploy
7. Operate
8. Monitor

Priority

• Low
• Medium
• High

Flow Status

• Yet to Start
• Underway
• Completed

Started

24/12/2024

Completed

25/12/2024

Time Taken

Example: 6,000 seconds.

Verb

• Edit
• Make
• Render
• Test

Function

Example: "Workspace".

OKR

Example: "Workspace Upgrade 3".

Scope

• Name of namespace object.

Task

Example: "Export the Google Sheet to DevOps engine".

Assigned

• Name of person/team/robot responsible.

WIP

• Example: 5

Batch Size

• Example: 1

% Resource Busy

• Example: 85%

Super Colour Palette

Mike's Notes

Dave Gray from Explorations and Explanations mentioned this great tool in his recent Substack. It allows you to choose a colour palette that can be exported.

Resources

• https://supercolorpalette.com/

References

• Reference

Repository

• Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
• Home > Handbook > 
• Home > Ajabbi Design > Design System > Colour

Last Updated

17/05/2025

Super Colour Palette

By: Dave Gray

Explorations and Explanations: 07/02/2025