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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: mouse cursors and default menu selections
Message-ID: <2307@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 2-Feb-85 00:36:55 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.2307
Posted: Sat Feb  2 00:36:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 15:03:58 EST
References: <420@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: The Village
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <420@decwrl.UUCP> shubin@bartok.DEC (when's lunch?) writes:
>
>Having the top item be the last item that was selected implies dynamically
>re-ordering the menu, which will lose more in confusion than it could
>gain.  In fact, the other choice, making the top item be the default
>selection, might mean re-ordering it as well, because the same menu in
>different contexts might have different defaults.

Dynamic reordering in a pop-up menu seems counter intuitive to me. I've
been using my Macintosh for a while now, and the way it uses pop up menu's
is flexible and easy to get used to. Each major category is shown at the
top of the screen, and clicking on that brings out the pop-up menu.
pointing at an item in the pop-up highlights it, and de-clicking (is there
a better term?) activates it. Moving off of the pop-up deactivates it
again. There are no defaults. 

A big advantage of this is that it allows browsing. You can bring forward
all of your pop-up menu's one at a time and look through them if you wish,
with the complete safety and knowledge that nothing will happen unless you
explicitly ask for it. Setting up defaults implies that something will
happen, and if you are searching for an action it becomes possible to
execute the default accidently, which causes users to inhibit their
actions. The only good default action is no action.

The Mac, BTW, is a good interface. It is fast (enough) for me, and had
enough power for me to really sit and play with interfaces. There are some
glitches-- having used 2, 3, and 4 button mooses before the Mac, I really
find a single button a hindrance-- my personal favorite is a two button
moose...

chuq
-- 
From the ministry of silly talks:               Chuq Von Rospach
{allegra,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Life, the Universe, and lots of other stuff  is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labs