Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: default menu item selection
Message-ID: <5022@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Feb-85 17:26:13 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5022
Posted: Wed Feb  6 17:26:13 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Feb-85 17:26:13 EST
References: <722@ihuxa.UUCP> <778@sdcsla.UUCP>, <1336@orca.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 21

> My point is pums wouldn't be needed if there was enough electronic
> workspace to have all necessary menus and the task at hand visible at 
> all times. 

Of course they wouldn't be needed, but this doesn't mean they wouldn't
be desirable.  The ability to have something pop up only when needed,
and go away (without having to be explicitly put away) when not needed,
is a new degree of flexibility that just doesn't exist with papers on
a desk top.  Personally, I think that this technique is valuable even
with a large screen, for clutter reduction if nothing else.

The objective at hand is not simulation of a desk top, but provision of
a good working environment.  The "papers on a desk" model is a useful
guide, but it's not the be-all and end-all of environments.  One of the
big differences between the screen and the desk top is that the screen
is under computer control and can be changed -- in useful ways, one hopes --
at high speed.  Discarding pop-up menus and related methods just because
the screen gets bigger is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry