Circa 2001-Jul-25 13:24:48 -0400 dixit Jeff Raven:
: On Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 12:52:42PM -0400, Gregory J. Barlow wrote:
: > I am unclear on where the marker would go, on the torn menu
: > itself, or on the menu a level up, showing it was torn. I see no
: > reason to specially label the torn menu itself or to put a close
: > button on it.
I do; i've already explained why. Not putting a close button on the
torn-off menu's titlebar is like not putting a handle on a glass door:
it's virtually impossible to tell it apart from a large window.
Putting the handle on it shows two things: (1) it's not a window, and
(2) how to open it. It's good design.
: > Labeling that a menu has been torn off and is hence not accessible
: > would be useful.
No, it wouldn't. Why should a torn-off menu not be accessible from its
parent menu? What if i forgot that i tore that menu off? When you
make the menu inaccessible, even though i usually access it from its
parent menu, that's called "excise", and it's bad design.
: > In addition, it might be nice if one could unpin a menu by
: > clicking on its currently nonfunctional entry one level up in the
: > menu system. That way, if a menu has been torn off and one wants
: > to access it, one doesnt need to locate the menu on the screen.
: > This also provides a way to remove menus which have strayed off
: > the screen by the method described a few weeks ago on this list.
That's actually a good idea (except that the menu entry ought still be
functional). Better to make a modified click do that, e.g.:
(On Submenu)
[LeftClick] -> open the submenu
[Enter]
[Control+LeftClick] -> close any torn off copies of this submenu
[Control+Enter]
You get the idea. The root window maybe ought to do the same for
pinned top-level menus.
: Hmm. Interesting thought.
:
: One problem is that clicking on a menu item which has a submenu
: can already have a meaning... The workspace menu, for instance,
: uses it as a signal to move to the appropriate workspace. But
: if you tear off that workspace's submenu, and then click on the
: workspace's name in the workspace menu, what is the reasonable
: behavior? Move to the workspace? Show the torn menu?
There's not really any reason not to open another copy of a torn-off
menu when its item is chosen in the parent menu. This could be
particularly important for keyboard navigation of menus.
: Ugh. So many wrinkles to deal with. This is going to take a lot
: more thought on my part...
Good user interfaces require a lot of forethought. I'm sure we're all
glad to see you forethinking, Jeff, and to help you when you need it.
--
jim knoble | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.pobox.com/~jmknoble/
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.jmknoble.cx/
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