Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!mcb
From: mcb@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (Still amused by setenv NAME)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pull down menus.
Message-ID: <14458@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Date: 6 Mar 88 18:19:37 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <3996@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> <730@nuchat.UUCP> <7398@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: mcb@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Still amused by setenv NAME)
Organization: U of Chicago- Extralegal Explorations Department
Lines: 27

In article <7398@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> elcond@garnet.berkeley.edu.UUCP
   (Gregory Dow) writes:
>I've been thinking about an extension to the standard Mac interface where
>a multiple-button mouse is simulated using modifier keys.  I propose that
>option-clicking (or control-clicking) should display a hierarchical popup menu
>of the titles in the menu bar.
   This sounds like a fun idea, provided that it exists SOLELY as an
alternative to the standard interface.  The reason the Macintosh has a one-
button mouse (in case anyone doesn't know) is that the average user works
faster with a single button.  Apple tested this fairly extensively, and it
turns out that most people get confused when there's more than one button on
the mouse.
   The guiding philosophy here should be the same as that behind the command
key equivalents for menus: if a user knows what she's doing, there should
be shortcuts available to her, but the shortcuts may only duplicate already
existing functionality.  ALL of the power of an application should be readily
accessible to a novice user.  (Is anyone at Microsoft listening?)
   I would recommend implementing this as a CDEV, so that the user can disable
it in the event that it conflicts with a particular application.  If you want
to send me the code, I'll give it a try (but no promises).
						-Matt

-- 
Matt Bamberger			"Ill-equipped to act,
1005 E. 60th St., #346		 With insufficient tact,
Chicago, IL 60637		 One must put up barriers
312-753-2261			 To keep oneself intact." - Rush