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From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
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: <10314@well.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 89 21:27:35 GMT
References: <3234@sugar.uu.net> <1472@zen.UUCP> <2308@nunki.usc.edu>
Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Organization: The Sorcerer's Workshop
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?".

Well, how about this ...

It's not a desktop -- it's a sorcerer's workshop.  The menus are the little
bags of magic powder that the wizard keeps in bigger bags.  Pulling down
a menu is opening the bag to see what little bags are inside.  Submenus are
bags within bags.  Selecting an item is taking a pinch of the powder and
sprinkling it on the item currently selected in the workshop.

So to send objects to alternate dimensions, you first "select" the object
and place it on the workbench.  Then you open the "File" bag and take out
a pinch of the "Delete" powder.  You mutter something and sprinkle it on
the selected item.  Then you mutter something less savory as the powder
does something you didn't expect.

The problem is that the only way to tell what these mysteriously labeled
powders do is to try them, and if you get the incantation wrong, you can
send yourself into alternate dimensions.  You wonder why people who
supposedly want to make computers easier to use would select such a
difficult metaphor.

;-)
-- 
		Stuart Ferguson		(shf@well.UUCP)
		Action by HAVOC