Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!eos!labrea!Portia!mouser
From: mouser@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Michael Wang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Finder Improvements
Summary: How about a two-button mouse for pop-up menus?
Message-ID: <4174@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 20 Nov 88 11:07:16 GMT
References: <too many to list here!>
Reply-To: mouser@portia.stanford.edu (Michael Wang)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 30

In all this discussion of where to put menus (in a fixed menu bar, in the
document's window, etc.), nobody's mentioned a simple hardware solution...

(Excuse me for a second while a climb into my flame-proof suit)

...a two-button mouse! If one button is dedicated to bringing up a pop-up,
hierarchical menu and selecting from it (similar to what most workstation
mice and PopIt do), accessing menus on large screens would be a lot easier.
I already use PopIt in conjunction with Stepping Out II, but I dislike
having to hold down Shift-Command everytime I want the menus to pop-up. I
don't think it would be too hard to develop a two-button mouse with the
associated driver/CDEV for the ADB port. Now, I know people are going to
say that two-button mice are harder to learn, but if the only function of
the second button is to bring up the pop-up menu, it shouldn't be too hard
to learn. Then of course somebody will ask, "which button do you use to
select a menu from the regular menu bar..."

(Boy, it's hot inside this suit, better take it off now...)

BTW, if you want an example of a modeless Open dialog box, take a look a
QUED/M, it has a very nice one.

-Michael Wang

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