Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Tear-OffMenus?
Message-ID: <8026@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 17 Jul 89 19:57:13 GMT
References: <2216@goanna.oz> <25723@srcsip.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 41

In article <2216@goanna.oz> pnm@goanna.oz (Paul BIG EARS Menon) writes:
>  I am about to embark on a Mac project, and would like to include
>  the tear-off menu facility (a la Hypercard, MacPaint...).  There are no

In article <25723@srcsip.UUCP> mnkonar@src.honeywell.com (Murat N. Konar)
writes:
>The April 1988 issue of MacTutor has a really good and robust
>descripion on how to implement Tear-Off menus.  It's in C and 
>source code disks are available from MacTutor for around $8.

I don't wish to impugn the fine programming of my colleagues at Impulse
Technologies, who wrote this code; but it should be noted that its
direct use of window regions and low-level window manager traps places
it in jeapordy for the future.  A source at Apple is in fact firmly
convinced that it will break under System 7.0.

I should also point out that incorporating this code in your programs
costs more than $8.  You have to obtain a considerably more expensive
license.

>Or you could wait for System 7 which I understand will support
>tear-off menus more straight forwardly (i.e. real calls, no 
>hacks).

The word is that *all* menus under System 7.0 will be tear-off menus.
This may change -- I hope so, as it would be confusing to the user.

Unfortunately, System 7.0 will run only on machines with two megabytes
or more of storage.  This means you cannot count on your target
audience having anything past System 6.0, since most machines do not
have more than one megabyte of RAM and will not be upgraded.  Perhaps
the best course is to test the system version; if it is 6.0.x then use
something like Don and Mike's code; if it is 7.0 then leave the system
to handle tearing off, and bypass Don and Mike's code.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the
 freest people in the world.  The children and the aged and infirm work not
 at all, and yet have all the comforts and neccessaries of life provided for
 them." -- George Fitzhugh, CANNIBALS ALL! OR, SLAVES WITHOUT MASTERS, 1857