The reasoning behind Menu Bar ordering (hmmmmm...!)

[Bowie Poag <bjp primenet com>]

Joachim wrote, in reference to the:

Program / File / Edit / View / Options / Help / Preferences

> 
> Why not make 'Preferences' always the last entry in the 'Options'-Menu 
> and the Preferences Dialog can contain a tabbed notebook if there are
> lots of preferences.
> 

Easy. Because Preferences arent an Option. If anything, theyre manditory.
for the user.

Back during my work on InSight, I actually looked into WHY most menu bars
look the way they do -- Why File is always before Edit, and why Edit is
always before View..Its an interersting reason.

It has to do with probability. The menu items are ordered the way they
are, due to the user's likelyhood of use--They are more likely to pick out
something in the File menu, than they are to use the Edit menu..theyre
more likely to use something in Edit, than they are to use something in
View, and so on down the line. Saw some interesting stuff regarding UI 
ergonomics from IBM about this--They'de sit there and record how
frequently people would select different menu items in the course of using
the program, and then come up with an appropriate ordering based on the
findings.:)

Makes sense, logically. Preferences belongs at the end of the row, because
it would be *most* likely to be used *least* often. :)

Bowie