sho@pur-phy (Sho Kuwamoto) (04/23/89)
In article <354@iconsys.UUCP> tom@iconsys.UUCP (Tom Kimpton) writes: >How about if when the mouse is in the area of the menu-bar of a window >(no matter how shrunken) the entire menu-bar "pops" up. Then have a >slop rectangle around the menu-bar to keep it "open" until you leave >that rectangle. Thus if you have your window shrunk down to say one inch >square, moving into the top mBarHeight of that window would "pop" up >the menu-bar. Perhaps you could have it user configurable as to slop-rect >size, and maybe only "pop" up if a modifier key is down. I don't know if I like this idea. I believe part of the reason that Apple went with pull down menus instead of popup menus is so that all the available functions would be visible at all times. (Of course, the other reason was to allow use of a one-button mouse.) Well, whether or not this is true, I think it's a good idea. You might say that after you get used to the interface, it doesn't really matter how you access the menus, as along as the interface was consistent. This might be true, but even so, I really dislike the concept of menus popping up and disappearing just by moving the mouse. Actions should only be taken if the mouse button is held down. As you say, maybe it'd be tolerable if you had to hit a modifier key. I can think of one more objection. Suppose you have a small window, and a large menubar. If the window is near the left of the screen, the menubar will extend right. If the window is near the right, the menubar will either be partly obscured, or extend to the left. In the latter case, you will not know beforehand where the menu you want will appear. Again, maybe it'd be disturbing, maybe not. I don't want to sound overly negative. Our user interface must constantly evolve to keep up with new hardware and software needs. If nothing else, it's fun to talk about what should be done. -Sho