Fullscreen mode [was Re: [Usability] Mac-style menus?]

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004, David Feldman wrote:

> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:36:48 -0400
> From: David Feldman <mailing-lists interfacethis com>
> To: Usability List <usability gnome org>
> Subject: [Usability] Mac-style menus?
>
> Has anyone attempted to implement Mac-style menus - that is, a global
> menu bar (in a panel) that contains the menus for the frontmost app or
> window?
>
> There are several usability advantages (some well-described in an
> asktog.com article I can't seem to find):
>
> - Fitts' Law states that the time to acquire a target is a function of
> the distance to it and its size. By putting menus along one edge of the
> screen we effectively increase their size in one dimension to infinity.
> In more mundane terms, we eliminate a lot of mousing around necessary
> when someone overshoots the menus - only the direction to them has to
> be right, not the distance.

Most of these advantages can be gotten by running applications in
fullscreen mode (my friend likes it so much better in fullscreen he runs a
window manager called ratpoison where everything is fullscreen, well sort
of), although unfortunately it seems defeat has been snapped from the jaws
of victory as in most cases the active area of the menus/buttons are not
flush with the top edge of the screen.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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