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From: philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Apple Menu Items
Message-ID: <1991May26.213617.24923@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 26 May 91 21:36:17 GMT
References: <1991May25.231736.1675@cs.umn.edu> <34901@mimsy.umd.edu>
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In article <34901@mimsy.umd.edu>, folta@tove.cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) writes:
|> Now, choosing an item from the Apple menu simply causes it to open. If you
|> have folders (or aliases to folders) in the Apple Menu folder, they become
|> visible in the Apple menu and they are opened when you select them. This is
|> consistent with all other objects you might place in the Apple Menu folder.
|> This is also consistent, of course, with how folders in the Startup Items
|> folder work.
|> 
|> If you get hierarchial menus by placing folders in the Apple Menu folder,
|> you are suddenly treating folders inconsistently. (That is, everything else
|> you could possibly place in the Apple menu is opened by selecting it... except
|> for folders.) Also, how would you place folders in the Apple menu so that you
|> could jump quickly to a folder of your choice? I am already quite fond of
|> this, as it lets me jump straight to my favorite folders.

My solution is simple: any folder whose name ends with "Menu Items"
within the folder "Apple Menu Items" is treated as a hierarchical menu; any
other folder is treated as in 7.0. This rule can be nested. The folder
"Applications Menu Items" would appear as the hierarchical menu item
"Applications". The folder "documents" would appear as an ordinary menu
item, and selecting it would result in the folder opening. This has the
advantage of being consistent with the naming convention of the Apple Menu
Items folder iteslf. Imagine the following hierarchy of folders:

folder hierarchy:                       comments:
System                             
  Apple Menu Items
    alarm clock                         ordinary DA
    Applications Menu Items             hierarchical menu
        MS Word                         aliases
        Stuffit                         to these applications
    TCP FTP etc. Menu Items             hierarchical menu
        Mac IP 4.0                      alias to application
        MacX Menu Items                 extra level of hierarchy
          MacX settings                 alias to document
          MacX application              alias to application
    Control Panels Menu Items           alias to Control Panels
    documents                           open "documents" folder

This scheme allows menus to open folders (which I like), but at
the same time makes hierarchical menus possible (which I 
particularly want for Control Panels).

With the example I have given above (I wouldn't actually
use so many - this is just an example) - you can do everything
requesters of hierarchical menus have requested, without
losing the present (consistent) functionality.

Small extension (left as an exercise): think of how this scheme
could be extended to allow additions to other Finder menus.
-- 
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu