Re: [Usability]Should the HIG advise use of Check and Radio menu items?

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 03:22:07PM +0100, Murray Cumming wrote:
> Instead of using a check menu item, some applications use either
> a) 2 mutually-exclusive menu items, with one always disabled.
> or
> b) One menu item, with the text changing - e.g. "Show Menubar"/"Hide
> MenuBar" in gnome-terminal.
> 
> I think the HIG should recommend against that, and tell people to use
> the appropriate GTK+ stuff. Any objections? Of course if there is no
> consensus then the HIG should just not mention it.

I don't know where use of mutating Show/Hide items started.

They solve one problem: in most themes, including the default theme,
an untoggled radio or check menu item can not be distinguished from
a normal menu item.

The obvious solution would be to copy Java: retain an open circle for
radio items and an open square for check items.

Both options a) and b) above create problems:

Option a) consumes too much space for what is often a trivial affordance.
It's a misuse of the toolkit to indicate an boolean state in such a way.

Option b) makes difficult learning a menu, fills the menu with noise,
isn't well supported by the toolkit, and probably is a pain for translators.


Crankily still awake,
Greg Merchan