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From: ack@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Andy J. Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Pull down menus.
Message-ID: <8332@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 6 Mar 88 14:47:14 GMT
References: <4129@hoptoad.uucp> <283@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu> <1710@ssc-vax.UUCP> <3996@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> <730@nuchat.UUCP>
Reply-To: ack@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Andy J. Williams)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 40

In article <730@nuchat.UUCP> peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>If nothing else, Apple has earned a big black mark for pull-down menus. Due
>to the Mac's popularity (due, in turn, to being the first kid on the block
>with affordable windows) *everyone* has been copying those stupid menus.
>Atari even emulates Apple's one-button paradigm on their 2-button mouse.
>
>Amiga at least has a separate menu button. But I still have to drag the mouse
>halfway across the screen to get at the menus when I hit it. I'd MUCH rather
>have context-sensitive pop-up menus. But, nooooo. Apple came up with pull-down
>menus and that's the way it'll be. The CP/M-style-system-calls of the windowing
>world.
>

Well, the philosophy behind the Mac is to be easy to use.  I think that
having a centralized, rarely changing, and standard format and place for
menus is much easier for the Computer Neophyte to use than having random
pop up menus all over the place.  But even these are part of the standard
ROM now as well as Heirarchical (sp).  I think that PullDown menus are the
best idea simply because they are always there, should always have the same
functions in the relative same place (God, wouldn't it be great if everyone
followed the User Interface Guidelines?) and do the relative same things?
(Open, Close, Save, Save as..., Cut, Copy... all and more)
How would a new user who has no idea what is going on feel about buttons
in random places on the screen, never the same, and try to find the one
that does what he/she wants?  This way everyone knows what the hell is going
on and more time can be spent USING the Mac instead of learning applications.


>--
>-- a clone of Peter (have you hugged your wolf today) da Silva  `-_-'
>-- normally  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter                U
>-- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.

-Andy

-- 
Andy J. Williams'90 |_   /| ACK!  |BITNET: ack@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
HB 509 Dartmouth Clg|\`o_O'Systems|UUCP:{ihnp4,decvax,linus}!dartvax!eleazar!ack
Hanover, NH 03775   |  ( )        |DISCLAIMER: You better like my opinions,
603-643-7727        |   U  --ACK! |         my mother can beat up your mother...