Re: notes on combo boxes

[Guy Harris <gharris flashcom net>]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2000 at 05:40:10PM +0100, Joel Becker wrote:
> 	While working on the NIC (www.thinknic.com), we target new
> computer users.  One of the biggest issues folks are having is with the
> OptionMenu.  In this case, it is Netscape's Motif widget, but the GTK+
> widget is of the same design, namely:
> 
> ,--------------------.
> | Some text here  -- |
> `--------------------'

Well, that widget *somewhat* resembles one of MacOS's "Standard Pop-Up
Menus":

	http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-91.html#HEADING91-0

although MacOS pop-up menus use a triangle pointing down, rather than
that horizontal thing, as the indicator that there's a menu hiding
there.

> 	There have been many complaints that it isn't ituitive what it
> does.

And I know what it does, and *still* don't like it; it makes filling out
forms in Netscape less pleasant on UNIX than on Windows:

	1) it doesn't appear to be easily driveable from the main
	   keyboard - in a non-editable combo box, I can type the first
	   letter of an item in the combo box's list and it'll jump to
	   the first/next entry in the list beginning with that letter,
	   so I can fill those fields in from the main part of the
	   keyboard just as I can fill in text boxes and text entry
	   boxes;

	2) it handles really long lists poorly (at least on Motif), with
	   a cascading menu that's very sensitive - yes, I know, one
	   arguably shouldn't *have* long lists on option menus, but
	   there's not much I can do to get all the Web designers out
	   there not to do that.

On the other hand, I seem to remember reading *somewhere* a critique of
either combo boxes in general, or non-editable combo boxes; I forget
what it said, but I'll see if I can find it.