Re: RGSG

[John R Sheets <dusk smsi-roman com>]

Dan Kaminsky wrote:
> 
> So what happens to a project app?  The moment an app lets you conglomerate
> numerous files, does Open get shoved over to The Foot?

No.  "Open..." and "Close..." will always be associated with
single files.  This is the point that "damn guy" was trying to
make.  That's why you don't want to confuse the two operations
file->close and application->quit.  When you want to close
something,  a file, or even a project, without shutting down the
entire application, you use the File/Main/Program menu.  When you
_do_ want to shut down the app, that's a completely different
scope of operation (outside the app's control, really); thus this
action should be in a different menu.

I would imagine that with such large project-bearing apps, you
would have two Opens in the file menu (just like MS Visual C++
does): "Open File" and "Open Project".

> Quick note--the foot looks nice, and SHOULD be there, but shouldn't have
> those options.  Well, OK, it should have a "Quit Application" button just
> like the File menu--that's one piece of redundancy I'll accept.

This is exactly what Windows 95 apps do (or, more precisely, what
MS Windows 95 does to Windows apps).  The File menu has an Exit
(put there by the application), and the icon application menu
just to the left of it has a Close button (put there by the OS,
but modifiable by the app).  Same functionality, different menu,
different name.  I _don't_ think we want to go down that path.

[BTW, this is a Microsoft convention.  If you generate a template
app in Visual C++, that's how it comes out.  Close and Exit. 
Kinda funny that Explorer bucks this convention with two Closes. 
Talk about a moving target.]

> Maybe the second menu of any system should always contain the edit commands
> at the top?

And with the foot/Program menu, this would be the File menu?  Do
you mean the first menu after the File menu?  What if the third
menu is View...or Help?

John