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From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.amiga,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: What are menus?
Message-ID: <1954@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 23 Jan 89 21:30:34 GMT
References: <3234@sugar.uu.net> <12907@steinmetz.ge.com> <10867@s.ms.uky.edu> <1989Jan18.125219.19180@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> <4470@pitt.UUCP> <15562@mimsy.UUCP>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.windows.misc
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 30

In article <15562@mimsy.UUCP> don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins) writes:
>>>Using linear pull down menus is like having to climb ladders to get
>>>where you're going.  There's a more natural metaphore for round pie
>>>menus, though.  I think of pie menus as rooms with doors leading off
>>>in different directions.  
>>>[...]
>>>	-Don
>
>>Actually, this has been done by XEROX.  It's called ROOMS, I think.
>>I've never actually seen it, but the guy who wrote it (I forget his name) was

I was walking up the stairs from the Xerox room the other day; it's
something I do eight or twelve times a day, now that the li'l stoonts
need lots of handouts for their li'l edification.

Ennyhoo (Is there _anyone_ more pleased that Pogo is back in the papers
than me?), I was flipping my keys for the eight or twelfth time that day,
and I realized:

	Pulldown menus are a ring of keys.

	You pull them out of your pocket,
	and select the the one that opens
	your next venue, or activates
	your next tool.

I need a carrot.

				--Blair
				  "Munch, Munch."