Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!pequod.cso.uiuc.edu!dorner From: dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) Subject: Re: removing balloon help.... Message-ID: <1991Jun14.142433.23341@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Organization: University of Illinois at U-C References: <1CE00001.h1mowr@avalon.caladan.wa.com> Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1991 14:24:33 GMT Lines: 37 In article neeri@iis.ethz.ch (Matthias Ulrich Neeracher) writes: >I disagree. Some options are put on the menubar SO THEY ARE FOUND EASILY WHEN >THEY ARE EVER NEEDED. Or do you seriously believe that "About ...", which is >the most prominent option in a menubar, is used the most often ? "About..." is primarily a marketing tool; this is who I am, this is who wrote me, this is who you should send more cash to. Hence its prominence; greed beats out function any old time. The Finder is one of the very few apps I can think of that puts anything remotely useful in the "About..." box; most apps (my own included) don't put anything there I'd ever need. >[Witty comment about Balloon Help deleted.] > So, if you want to know how to type a non-breaking hyphen in favorite Word processor>, you fire up your interactive Computer Based Training >aid ? Explain to me how balloon help will tell me how to type a non-breaking hyphen. To what shall I point? As a developer, I'm really pleased with Balloon Help, because it's going to give me a way to communicate with *novice* users of my program. As a sophisticated user with a fairly static set of applications that I know well, Balloon Help is useless clutter in my menu bar. I do want to get rid of it on my mac, which I certainly don't want ANYONE else messing with anyway. I disagree with "It's stupid for Apple not to make the Help menu optional" AND with "It's stupid to want to get rid of the Help menu." I think both sides in this argument have perfectly reasonable positions; There are perfectly good reasons to make the Help menu optional, but Apple can't make *everything* (easily) customizable. -- Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!s-dorner