s57783@zeus.usq.EDU.AU (chapman alan) (04/17/91)
I have recently been asked to assist on a research project to test the benefits of a couple of different menu structures for an editor environment. I have programming in C for quite a while but I have only dabbled in the Mac environment (programming wise) a bit since I purchased Think C 4.0 about six months ago. I wonder what would be the best approach to the following problem: I need to have a couple of windows on the screen (no menubar), upon the user clicking the mouse, a further window opens up. This window will have some boxes containing some text linked by lines (indicating structure). The mouse pointer should then be moved into this window and the user allowed to move it anywhere from there. As the mouse is moved over the boxes in the window they should highlight and dehighlight as the mouse is moved out of the box. When the user clicks in one of the boxes the scene ends and the number of the selection is returned. There are several other cosmetic things which should be simple enough. There is also an alternative menu style which we will be testing also. It involves a very similar approach but with indented lines of text to indicate structure rather than lines and boxes. Bear in mind that this is testing only for reseach purposes, so please no flames about not using the standard mac interface guidelines. The final editor will most likely not even be on the Mac. I would like as many ideas and recommendations as possible (general or specific). I would like to consider using the Think C Class libraries and object oriented programming approach. Is this advisable? We have several books on order (Inside Macintosh Volumes and several other books I have seen recommended on the network). Thanks in Advance, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Chapman, Tutor, School of Info. Tech.| email : s57783@zeus.usq.edu.au UCSQ, Toowoomba QLD 4350, Australia. | "PC's and me just don't agree!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Chapman, Tutor, School of Info. Tech.| email : s57783@zeus.usq.edu.au UCSQ, Toowoomba QLD 4350, Australia. | "I love my Mac and the INTERNET" -----------------------------------------------------------------------------