Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:13837 comp.windows.misc:254
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!amdahl!nsc!voder!apple!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac toolbox, etc
Message-ID: <7655@apple.Apple.Com>
Date: 11 Mar 88 19:25:22 GMT
Reply-To: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer
Lines: 28

In article <484@siemens.UUCP> wagner@gypsy.UUCP (Mike Wagner) writes:
>
>If you define "pull-down menus" to mean "click a mouse button while the mouse
>is over some labelling image to bring up a menu" then the Xerox Star (now

What you described is what people generally call popup menus.

I think the idea of displaying a list of menu titles in a fixed place is
also part of the pull-down menu concept.  The user can also move the mouse
over each title in turn to see all the command available.  Experienced users
can take advantage of the fact that the menus appear in the same place each
time, and can anticipate where on the screen an item will fall.

>They were *extremely* pleased to see those pictures with menus under them.
>Don't know what they did with this information. Maybe they're "copyright
>infringements" were much more than just pull-down menus (MacPaint, ...).

I think this was the case.  They copied many aspects of the Macintosh user
interface (down to the set of system patterns).  Also, the issue as I
understood it was the overall appearance of the user interface.  The Xerox
menus and the Apple menu looked totally difference, although one could
easily see the heritage.  The same was not true of GEM.

-- 
		 Larry Rosenstein,  Object Specialist
 Apple Computer, Inc.  20525 Mariani Ave, MS 32E  Cupertino, CA 95014
	    AppleLink:Rosenstein1    domain:lsr@Apple.COM
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