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From: rjung@castor.usc.edu (Robert  allen Jung)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng,comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: What are menus?
Message-ID: <2308@nunki.usc.edu>
Date: 10 Jan 89 21:55:20 GMT
References: <3234@sugar.uu.net> <1472@zen.UUCP>
Sender: news@nunki.usc.edu
Reply-To: rjung@castor.usc.edu (Robert  allen Jung)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 27

In article <3234@sugar.uu.net> peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Well, I asked "what in the real world are pull-down menus a metaphor for?".

In article <1472@zen.UUCP> frank@zen.co.uk (Frank Wales) writes:
> The
>desktop metaphor sure isn't a true representation of any desktop I've seen,
>but then it does seem more useful the way it is.

  To address the original question, I always thought drop-down/pull-down/etc.
menus were a metaphor for actions you do on a desktop.

  Suppose you click on a file, then go to your respective menu and choose
"Show Info". Isn't this equvalent to grabbing a sheath of papers, then looking
at them to see what they're about?

  Okay, so the menu--action metaphor is a lot closer to the menu's intended
function; But since when do metaphors have to be abstract?

						--R.J.
						B-)

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