Hubert Lai <LAIH@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> (03/19/91)
I recently FTPed Usher v1.1 from CICA. It is far and away superior to Launch v 1.4 and BackMenu v1.1. However, there are still some things about it which I w ould prefer changed. Does anyone know if there is a more recent version availa ble? For the benefit of netters who may not be familiar with Usher, it is a handy li ttle utility that pops up when you click on the background. You can have diffe rent menus pop up depending on which mouse button you clicked. Menus can be no rmal or sticky. You can have cascading menus if you wish. It pops up instantl y and only takes 9 KB of RAM. You can use it as a shell to replace ProgMan, if you wish. Now here are my problems: 1) When I double-click on a minimized program to restore it to a window, the pr ogram is restored but the Usher menu also pops up. This isn't fatal but it is extremely irritating. 2) When I double-click on the control box of a program to minimize it, the prog ram is minimized, but the Usher menu also pops up. Again, this isn't fatal but is extremely irritating. 3) A game called Taipei! will minimize itself if you click the right mouse butt on over it. I suppose this is a panic button in case one's boss strolls by. W hen I click the right button it minimizes itself as it is supposed to, but the Usher menu also pops up. Obviously, points 1, 2, and 3 are all caused by the s ame thing. 4) When I accidentally click on the background the Usher menu pops up as one wo uld expect it to. With Launch I would just click on the background again to ma ke the menu disappear. With Usher this doesn't work. The menu disappears, but then another pops up again right away! I can click on an application window o r icon if there is one on the screen, but this is not a satisfactory solution. Basically, I like Usher a lot. As I noted above, it is the most powerful progr am of its type that I have come across. I'm just not terribly happy about the way it handles moues clicks. I know it can be done right because Launch does. In case anyone is wondering, I am using sticky menus for both the right and le ft buttons. I hated using normal menus because I couldn't stand having the lef t button menus and right button menus behave inconsistently. In other words, I ought to be able to hold the left button down, slide the highlight down to the option I want and release the button, causing the menu option to be executed. Similarly, I ought to be able to hold the right button down, slide the highlig ht and then release it. In v1.1 the left button works fine for normal menus bu t the right button always seems to behave like a sticky menu and also forces me to use the left button to click on the menu option. Oh, in case the author of Usher is reading this, in the next version of Usher i t would be awfully nice if you could add directives for Free GDI Resources and Free User Resources as well as the Free Memory, Time, Date, etc. ones that you have already implemented. Congrats on a fine program! <=- Hubert