Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!keith From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: ScrollBar design question Message-ID: <54349@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 26 Jun 91 18:05:26 GMT References: <305426.2865D1B9@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG> <1991Jun25.124247.11023@cbnews.cb.att.com> Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA Lines: 32 In article <1991Jun25.124247.11023@cbnews.cb.att.com> jbr0@cbnews.cb.att.com (joseph.a.brownlee) writes: >In article shores@fergvax.unl.edu (Shores) writes: >>>dmittman@beowulf.JPL.NASA.GOV (David Mittman) writes: >> >>>DM> My office-mate repeatedly questions the wisdom of the Apple engineers >>>DM> who designed the standard scrollbars. He would like to know why >>>DM> the thumb (box) is not proportional, i.e. show how much information >>>DM> of the total information content of the window is currently being >>>DM> displayed, rather than positional. >> >>Not totally sure, but I don't think the WinDudes deserve credit for that >>either; AmigaDOS has had them for a long time, I think b4 Windows did. > >Actually, I have seen Xerox applications that have this (most notably Ventura >Publisher), so I wonder if the old Xerox PARC stuff had them. I must admit, >that this is one thing I wish Apple would have done differently, but I'm sure >that changing it now would probably cause problems for some programs. You are correct that changing it now would cause problems. In order to show a proportional thumb, you have know know the size of the view you are scrolling, which isn't currently supported in the scrollbar control interface. By the way, Apple computers have had proportional thumbs since 1986. On the Apple IIgs... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "But where the senses fail us, reason must step in." - Galileo