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From: davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Menus in windows (was Re: System 7 question)
Message-ID: <776@gandalf.littlei.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 90 18:42:11 GMT
References: <2964@pur-phy> <10734@claris.com> <578@sunfs3.camex.uucp> <1353@unocss..unl.edu> <5199@mnetor.UUCP>
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>> ...instead of putting the menu IN the window, replace the Title Bar
>> with a MenuBar, Perhaps in a format such as:
>>  AppName  File   Edit   Menu     Menu   Menu     ZoomBox

I've used several programs that use menus in the window or title bar, such as
MacSink/Vantage and FullWrite ("Find" dialog box) on the Mac and FrameMaker
on UNIX systems.  The problem with this strategy for me is that the menubar 
is too hard to hit.  

The Mac's menubar is at the very top of the screen for a good reason: you
cannot possibly overshoot.  You just WHANG the mouse up to the top of the
screen and hold the button down (you can do this without even looking!),
then wave it right and left until you see the menu you want.  This makes
selecting a menu easy for even the most uncoordinated.  It is easy to
select an item from the menu, too: you just wave the mouse up and down
until the big black bar highlights the item you want.  The whole system
seems to me to be VERY carefully thought out: it never requires a precision
better than about a quarter of a screen inch vertically and three-quarters
of a screen inch horizontally, and there's big, bold visual feedback at all
times.

Menus in the window require much more precise positioning.  You must move
the pointer to the menu and not beyond.  This means either overshooting and
moving back, or slowing down before you reach the menu: either way, it's
not as fast as whamming the pointer into the top of the screen at full speed.*
The visual feeback is not as good, either: instead of a big menu that appears 
or a big black bar that moves, you must decide whether or not the little 
pointer is in the menu area you want before pressing the button.  There is 
more higher-level brain function involved, so it feels like more work.  The 
differences are tiny, but they have a big effect on the perception of the 
system.

Of course, precise positioning IS required for many operations, especially in
graphics programs.  But the basic, lowest-level command mechanism (menus in
the Mac's case) MUST be dead-simple to access.  If the simple commands take
a fraction of a second too long to execute, the system will be perceived as 
"slow" or "cumbersome."

Some people say that the top-of-the-screen menubar is a problem with large
displays.  For me, at least, it's no problem.  The way I have my mouse set, 
even with a full-page display I can still get to the top of the screen in 
one swipe.  I'd much rather have the menus in one consistent, easy-to-reach
place than have them scattered all over the screen.

The other menu paradigm that works for me is having the menu pop up at the
current mouse position.  That's why I use DA Menuz (hierDA).  However, I
still use the menu at the top of the screen 90% of the time, because it's
always there and always visible.

- David D. Levine, Intel IMSO Tech Pubs
  davidl@leonardo.intel.com
  "Being disintegrated makes me very angry."

(* This is also the way I stop when rollerskating. :-) )