Re: Arlo, a little QA comment regarding your interview withlinux.com

[Ben FrantzDale <bfrantzdale hmc edu>]

> Ryan Marsh wrote:
> > 
> > I really like the way M$ did the menus in Office & Windows 2000. At first it
> > only shows the "short" menu (normal day to day stuff). The last item in each
> > menu is a chevron symbol pointing down. If you click on the chevron symbol,
> > the menus change and all of the items that would be in the "long" format are
> > now shown but slightly grayed to differentiate them from the normal menu
> > items. You stay in the "long" mode until the menus are closed or lose focus
> > (I'm not sure what the GTK word for it is).
> No, this is evil!!
> I recently saw an Word 2000 without an open menu item in file!!!!
> And it is not good because it prevents novice users just working with an
> application for "accidentialy" discovering new functions. And it  stops
> me from finding the options I search, I often don't know where the
> progammers put some feature, so i just open the first
> pulldown-menu(usualy file) and quickly scan it with my eyes and then
> move the mouse to the next one. With menus ala Office 2000 i would
> either have to wait much longer to see all options or need to move the
> mouse down and click that expand-item.

I'm curious, have you ever used Word 2000? The lesser used options arn't gone
completely. They show up after a few seconds. I find that I can get at what I 
want much more quickly on a small menu so much so that it's worth the little
extra hassel of waiting or clicking for the full menu. I could see it getting in
the way of newbies finding things but for everyone else, it is a great help.
If I'm looking for a function, I get the full menu and then, as Ryan wrote,
every menu is full untill I close the menu or select an item.

--Ben

>....