Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.misc:4730 comp.sys.mac.programmer:18486
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!portal!atari!momenta!tecot
From: tecot@momenta (Ed Tecot)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: idea -- sideways scrolling menu bar
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.011125.29846@momenta>
Date: 24 Oct 90 01:11:25 GMT
References: <90289.160406BRL102@psuvm.psu.edu> 	<1990Oct16.221605.20843@midway.uchicago.edu> <N67786.90Oct16181146@lehtori.tut.fi>
Organization: Momenta Corporation
Lines: 17

n67786@lehtori.tut.fi (Nieminen Tero) writes:
>The idea of sideways scrolling menubar is one of the best I've seen
>lately. The hanging of such a thing wouldn't be any bigger problem
>than hanging of a scrolling menu (never happened to me so far). Maybe
>this is one of the thing Apple should have thought of (anyone on Apple
>listening).

This idea was tested and discarded at Apple in late 1987.  What we found was
that the menu bar as it exists has two major benefits:
	a) All menu titles are always visible.
	b) Users can rely on kinetic memory to find the proper menu.
We found that although scrolling menu bars permit more menus; they completely
trash the two benefits above.  In addition, we found that although hierchical
menus are in general a bad idea; they were a better solution for this
problem.

						_emt