Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!vsi1!daver!kcdev!hotlips!ken
From: ken@hotlips.att.COM (Ken MacLeod)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Top of screen menu barrier (Was Re: Can't resize windows?)
Summary: UI idea to simulate, in pop-ups, the physical barrier at the
	top of the screen that makes menus easier to work with.
Message-ID: <529@hotlips.att.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 90 18:11:52 GMT
References: <1990Jul10.022352.4138@bdmrrr.bdm.com> <3097@gmdzi.UUCP> <9240@goofy.Apple.COM>
Distribution: comp
Organization: AT&T Kansas City, MO
Lines: 37

In article <9240@goofy.Apple.COM>, lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) writes:
> In article <BARNETT.90Jul18130957@grymoire.crd.ge.com> barnett@crdgw1.ge.com writes:
> >
> >But when you have bigger screens, or perhaps three monitors, move the
> >mouse to one spot is a real pain, expecially when you are at one end,
> >and the menu bar is at the other.
> >
> >I have never had to "hunt" for a mouse with a pop-up menu.
> 
> Except that in the latest CHI Proceedings some people did a study that
> showed that the menu bar at the top of the screen was faster than using a
> popup menu.  The reason being that the top of the screen acts as a barrier,
> which increases the effective size of the target.  (That doesn't mean one
> couldn't design a popup menu interface tha twas better, but a simple popup
                                                  ^^??^^
> menu won't do it.)

  How 'bout: Gravity wells.  Once the pointer is inside a pop-up menu
it "bumps" into the edge, requiring a little more "pull" (about 10-15
pixels of movement) to move the cursor out of the "depression" caused
by the popup.

  While this goes against the "don't move [stop, in this case] the
pointer" I have the feeling that it would feel right.  Actually,
visually, the wall could be a gray scale, and the pointer would move
1/3 or 1/4 speed over the "anomaly".  [At last! a practical UI use of
visual depth!]

  "Walls" would also occur on the outside edges of tool palettes in
active windows.

  (For X people using auto-focus and auto-raise windows, auto-raise
windows would be "higher" than the surrounding windows [and there was
much rejoicing :-) ].)

  -- Ken
  ken@snowhit.att.com