Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!kth!sunic!sics.se!news
From: ollef@sics.se (Olle Furberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: How do I reliably set the userLevel of a stack ?
Message-ID: <1989Aug6.001759.23338@sics.se>
Date: 6 Aug 89 00:18:10 GMT
References: <113@citycs.UUCP> <9719@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <8622@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Sender: news@sics.se
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
Lines: 36

In article <8622@saturn.ucsc.edu> sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Greg Anderson) writes:
>In article <9719@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:

>>...keeping the userLevel at 1.  You could simply do....
...
>No!  That's evil!  It's bad enough when a stack changes the userLevel on
>openstack.  I _hate_ having to type "set the userlevel to 5" in the message
>box, ESPECIALLY when the stack in question is in the public domain and
>contains things that would be useful in other stacks.


It's against Apple user interface guidelines to change anything without
kind permission of the user (that's why programs have alert dialogs).

An even more disgusting thing is all these hidings of the menubar:
DON'T HIDE THE MENUBAR IN THE SCRIPT!!!!!

If HyperCard crashes with the menubar hidden, I must reboot my Mac to get it
back in any other program (including Finder).

Hiding the menubar is not recommended by the interface guidelines: the
menubar and the mouse is the two most important things in the Mac interface.
Think of what happens if you get a mouse-freeze or the menubar isn't
available? The only way out is one of the small buttons to the left of your
Mac! The same goes for utilities like the setcursor XCMD: the mouse/cursor
belongs to the user and should not be moved by any script!!

Its OK to ad your own menus to the menubar by using some XCMDs. That's  the
best way to show the user what choices could be made without clogging up the
screen. However, adding your own menus without changing the userlevel, might
be complicated: on a Plus/SE-screen there's not much room for a new menu
esp. when you are paint-mode.


      /Olle