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From: coy@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stephen B Coy)
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: <2470@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 89 00:25:52 GMT
References: <3234@sugar.uu.net> <1472@zen.UUCP> <2308@nunki.usc.edu>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Corp., Seattle WA
Lines: 30

In article <2308@nunki.usc.edu>, rjung@castor.usc.edu (Robert  allen Jung) writes:
>   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?

Can menus be replaced with something closer to the actions they
are a metaphor for?  When I want to edit a document I pick up a
pencil and put it to paper.  The metaphorical desktop could have a
pencil which could be grabbed by the pointer(ala MacPaint).
Clicking this pencil onto a file would then invoke the editor.
"Show Info" could be done with a magnifying glass giving you a
closer look at the file.   Or how about having a Xerox(tm) machine
on your desk which when fed a file spits out a duplicate?  Taken to
an extreme this could get really annoying.

> 						--R.J.
> 						B-)
> 
>  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Disclaimer: These are my views, and mine alone.
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Stephen Coy
uw-beaver!ssc-vax!coy