Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!caen!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs326ag
From: cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Mac and Amiga (Games--Macintosh vs A500)
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.230802.7655@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 23:08:02 GMT
References: <7920@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1991Mar18.141337.9969@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Mar19.015116.11764@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Reply-To: l-rittle@uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 42

In article <1991Mar19.015116.11764@hubcap.clemson.edu> ddyer@hubcap.clemson.edu (Doug Dyer) writes:
>peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>
>
>>Microsoft Windows has about the best user interface I've seen on any machine.
>>It's the only one reasonably usable from the mouse *or* the keyboard...
>>everyone else has made a stab at supporting keyboard control (and don't tell
>>me Apple does any better at this... they're not), Microsoft has made it work.
>
>keyboard pull-down windows is nice.  Isn't there a recent program that
>does that on a fish disk?

A friend of mine and myself wrote a little input handler called
AltMenu that does what you are talking about (and what Windows does...)

You can tap the alt key and the menu for the current window opens!
Then you can use the arrow keys to `walk' between the different
sub-menus and entries. Each tap of an arrow key move the pointer
one entry (not one pixel! of course...)
You can tap alt again to abort the menu picking process at any time
or you can hit return to pick the currently selected item.
Just as in Windows, you can type the first letter of an
item's name and the cursor instantly jumps to the item.
For people who like how Windows does it's menu picking via
the keyboard, AltMenu is for them (hi Peter!).  As an
aside, I hate the way Windows works, but my friend really
like it, so I guess to each his own.

To avoid mass confusion let me state, AltMenu has never been release
to the public.  I would have to talk to my friend (still at Iowa
State University) before giving it out.  If this sounds neat and
you have never seen such a beast write me a small message stating
that you *love* the way Windows does it's keyboard based menu
stuff.  I will pass it along to my friend and if his ego
brusts, then he will agree to let me give out copies...

Loren J. Rittle
-- 
``NewTek stated that the Toaster  *would*  *not*  be made to directly support
  the Mac, at this point Sculley stormed out of the booth...'' --- A scene at
  the recent MacExpo.  Gee, you wouldn't think that an Apple Exec would be so
  worried about one little Amiga device... Loren J. Rittle  l-rittle@uiuc.edu