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From: steffen@ihuxa.UUCP (Joe Steffen)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: default menu item selection
Message-ID: <722@ihuxa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Jan-85 12:11:07 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxa.722
Posted: Tue Jan 29 12:11:07 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Jan-85 07:00:35 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 23

When you press a mouse button to pop-up a menu, should the top item be the
default selection, or the last item you selected on the menu?  The latter
has the advantage that clicking the menu button repeats the last operation,
but 

	1) is error prone because you have to remember the last operation
	and if you forget you will select the wrong one,
	
	2) you have to decide whether to move the mouse up or down to get
	to the correct item if you don't want the last item you selected.
	
Thus you will save time if you repeat a selection and lose the half second
deciding which way to go if you don't repeat.

The Teletype 5620 DMD(TM) Terminal under the layers program defaults to
repeating the selection by clicking, but this can be changed by a program
running under layers.  Should a program stick to the default so as not to
confuse the user?  Would novices prefer one way and experts another?  What
do other mouse-based systems do?
-- 


	Joe Steffen, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, (312) 979-5381