[comp.sys.mac.misc] Apple Menu Items

folta@tove.cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (05/26/91)

>I think 'Apple Menu Items' of System 7.0 should have some options to allow the
>hierarchical menus.  Suppose Control Panels Folder contains some cdev's.  
>When I make an alias for this folder and put it into Apple Menu Items Folder,
>it will give me the hierarchical menus other than just a folder. How's that?!

Anything you select from the Apple Menu gets opened by the System. The System
treats all objects consistently: applications, sounds, fonts, the System,
documents, folders, suitcases, and disks. When you open them, the logical thing
happens.

Now, choosing an item from the Apple menu simply causes it to open. If you
have folders (or aliases to folders) in the Apple Menu folder, they become
visible in the Apple menu and they are opened when you select them. This is
consistent with all other objects you might place in the Apple Menu folder.
This is also consistent, of course, with how folders in the Startup Items
folder work.

If you get hierarchial menus by placing folders in the Apple Menu folder,
you are suddenly treating folders inconsistently. (That is, everything else
you could possibly place in the Apple menu is opened by selecting it... except
for folders.) Also, how would you place folders in the Apple menu so that you
could jump quickly to a folder of your choice? I am already quite fond of
this, as it lets me jump straight to my favorite folders.

Maybe they could say: folder *aliases* in the Apple menu open the pointed-to
folders, while *true* folders define a pull-right submenu. But then the
transparency of aliases becomes context-dependent.

Everyone wants pull-rights in the Apple menu, but it is hard to decide how
to do it!
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Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)