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From: frankb@crash.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pop Up Menus....
Message-ID: <814@crash.CTS.COM>
Date: Wed, 18-Feb-87 23:37:55 EST
Article-I.D.: crash.814
Posted: Wed Feb 18 23:37:55 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Feb-87 05:36:22 EST
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>      Frank is exactly right here.  Everyone knows that when Moses
> went up into the mountain, he brought back engraved in stone a
> copy of Inside Macintosh, Volumes I through IV.  Haven't we
> learned from history (Spanish Inquisition, centuries of religious
> war, the "big/little endian" controversy) that authoritative
> statements such as those made in IM (bless its name!) are never,
> EVER to be questioned by ordinary mortals such as ourselves.  We
> have only purchased the Macintosh, we have only parted with our
> hard earned money, the fruits of our sweat, we have not nearly as
> much merit as the sainted authors of Inside Macintosh.  Who dares
> to question the sanctity of the title bar?  Banish them to
> ever-lasting torment!  They have sinned!  Let all who pass them by
> look the other way!
> 
>      Worse yet, the authors of Lightspeed C have been guilty of
> the sin of PRIDE.  They have attempted to demonstrate more
> programming expertise than the sainted ones, the authors of the
> the operating system.  They have misused the sacred ROM!  They
> have broken the sacred covenant:  THOU SHALT NOT DO ANYTHING
> CREATIVE BEFORE IT IS DONE IN CUPERTINO.  Bring on the lashes, the
> rack, the Iron Maiden.  Let those who have offended pay for their
> sins in this life, to serve as an example to that fool who would
> contemplate using the Macintosh for any heritical innovation.
> Furthermore, for its role in this travesty, let the programming
> language known as "C" be forevermore banished to the outer
> darkness.  We all know that it was the sin of using "C" that led
> to this horrible blasphemy.
> 
>      Have I stated your position correctly, Frank?

In a word--and an emphatic word at that--no.

First, "let me make myself perfectly clear" on a couple of issues.  I
own and use Lightspeed C.  I think C is probably the best all-around
language these days, and Lightspeed C is, as far as I've seen, the best
implementation of it on any computer at any price.  Furthermore, I hold
the people at Think in very high regard.  They're doing some of the
most innovative software on the Macintosh these days.

I do not mean to reserve all rights to enhance the Macintosh interface
to the folks at Cupertino.  Developers can and should experiment with
the Macintosh interface to try and coax more simplicity and power out
of it.  But, as has been proved before, those who specifically violate
Apple warnings *not* to do something (or to do something only a certain
way) are in for trouble.  Now I for the life of me can't imagine a
future compatibility problem caused by option-clicking on the title bar
of a window.  But you never know.  Sillier things have caused problems
with new machines.

Something to keep in mind when contemplating changes to the Macintosh
interface is the fact that the deep similarity between applications on
the Macintosh is the reason it is so easy to use.  This, folks, is why
the Macintosh is so popular these days.  No other consumer computer has
such a uniformity of interfaces across applications.  That's why the
Macintosh is such a pleasure to use.

With that in mind, though, it must be acknowledged that the Macintosh
interface is not and should not become a static unchanging entity.  As
we come up with new uses for the Macintosh, we will need to develop
new ways to let the user communicate to the machine.  This is not a
process which Apple Computer, Inc. should undertake alone, and indeed,
they do not.  It is up to developers to encounter "brick walls" in the
Macintosh interface, devise their own ways of overcoming them, and 
release their ideas to their users and see how they are received.  If
an idea is obvious enough and gains popularity--if it makes sense--it's
a good bet that Apple will notice it and nod approvingly.  Apple's
first big "nod" is coming in the form of a revised set of Human
Interface Guidelines due out soon which will address "power user"
enhancements to the Macintosh interface.

To a point, this is what Think did with their option-click strategy in
Lightspeed C: they devised their own enhancement to the Macintosh
interface.  The only difference is that their enhancement specifically
went against an Apple recommendation, rather than working around it.
There are other places they could have placed the pop-up box, or other
methods they could have tried.

In short:

The Macintosh interface is an important standard which developers must
respect to the best of their abilities.  It will, however, require 
revisions as needs change.  As various developers try different
revisions, it is Apple's responsibility to watch this process, choose
the best and most necessary of the revisions and incorporate them into
the official Macintosh user interface guidelines.  Developers should,
though, at nearly any cost and under nearly any circumstances, avoid
making any changes to the Macintosh interface which specifically
violate Apple recommendations.  And developers should strive to ensure
that their interface revisions are "in the spirit" of the original
Macintosh interface.

*That's* my position.

___________________________________________________________________________
                                 Frank Boosman | "I'm always hoping that
                        Silicon Beach Software | that you'll end this reign
ARPA/UUCP: {sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!frankb | / But it's my destiny to
                            MCI Mail: fboosman | be the king of pain." --
                                   BIX: frankb | Sting, King of Pain