Re: Long Menus issue - WMaker style?

[The Doctor What <docwhat gerf org>]

How about doing the menus like Wmaker?  After all, the idea is that the
menu should be of a reasonable size (xfontsel isn't reasonable), so show
the whole thing.

How those who don't know, if you right-click on the desktop while in
WindowMaker (a Window Manager), you'll get a menu.  If the menu goes off
the screen (any direction, left, right, top, bottom..) then you can get to
the off screen parts by moving the mouse towards the edge of the screen
and the menu slides the opposite direction....

Example:
              
   +----Menu-----+
   | item 1 of 5 |
   | item 2 of 5 |
   | item 3 of 5 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <--bottom of screen

After you move mouse as if your were going to move it off the bottom of
the screen to select "item 4 of 5" (the whole menu slides upwards):

   +----Menu-----+
   | item 1 of 5 |
   | item 2 of 5 |
   | item 3 of 5 |
   | item 4 of 5 |
   | item 5 of 5 |
   +-------------+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <--bottom of screen


I hope this explains what I mean, but I fear I'm not being very clear.

I prefer this method, out of them all.

I really don't like the scrollbars on my menu idea. I'm not entirely sure
why, but it irritates my sensibilities.  But maybe I just need to see some
examples.

Hmmm...perhaps someone should write a little demo/example of each menu
type to play with.

Also: If we impliment really complete themes, then some of your methods
(like scroll bars and column tiling) won't work in some cases...
Example: How would you add scroll bars or column tiling to a PIE menu?

This idea would let the user make ANY choice to their environment and
still handle it well.

This is also usefull for PDAs and other tiny screen devices.  Especially
with applications that *insist* on using their fonts and such.

Anyway,  just thought for food...er...food for thought.

Ciao!

docwhat@gerf.org

REFERENCES:
Windowmaker is available at:
http://www.windowmaker.org/