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From: stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: removing balloon help....
Message-ID: <1CE00001.hznrnc@avalon.caladan.wa.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 12:42:06 GMT
Reply-To: stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden)
Organization: Avalon, beyond the Mists
Lines: 53
X-Mailer: uAccess - Mac Release: 1.5


In article <15463@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>, klingspo@mozart.cs.colostate.edu (Steve Klingsporn) writes:
  | In article <1991Jun12.190156.29819@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) writes:
  | >In article <14011@goofy.Apple.COM> rmh@apple.com (Rick Holzgrafe) writes:
  | >>> So tell me, has anybody sucessfully removed the balloon help icon
  | >>> from the menu bar?
  | >Can you say, "It covers up my clock"?
  | 
  | Can you say "deal with it until the init writer comes out with a new one?"
  | I have used SuperClock 3.9 with 7.0, and have seen the clock move over to
  | the left once the help menu is initially drawn.  Maybe we don't have the
  | same experiences.

Perhaps your not using an SE, Plus, Classic, SE/30, Portable, LC,
or other configuration which uses "the most popular" screen size,
where the menubar real-estate is spartan to say the lease, these days..

If we are to believe Apple, the Classic and the LC are destined to
rule the world, in which case the "standard" config is small screen.
In this world it makes sense for first time users to have access to
Balloon help, but it is absolute lunacy to provide no way to turn
this off either on an application specific or on a global basis!

I love the "idea" of Balloon Help, and it's great that it's soooooo
obvious now (the icon stares you in the face as though "daring" you
to click on it, constantly!).  I don't understand the Apple usability
people at all.  What could they be thinking to make the icon "stick"
there, and why of why didn't they put it under the Applications menu..
safely out of the way?  Surely Apple expected that the first major
group of users to migrate to System 7 would be "power" and "experienced"
users?  Power users might use the feature occasionally, true, but
why must we see it constantly?  While it is true that "power" users
may have larger screens, I still don't have that much menubar real-estate
to burn.

I think a toggle would be nice either in each application.. if it doesn't
support balloon help, why bother showing the balloon menu, or if the
application does, why not leave that as a prefs for the application
to deal with (obviously Apple aren't going to buy this one :-))..
  or
Provide a global option in the control panel to turn the "feature"
on and off (obviously again this is "unlikely" to happen :-)).

I think the arguably "smart" thing to do is wait for someone to post
a neat cdev that will do just that.. I would think that with the bandwidth
this discussion is taking, that this is more than likely going to
be the case..? :-)

Stu.

--
stui@avalon.uucp
stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com