Re: Mac-style menus

["Eric Gillespie, Jr." <epg pobox com>]

On Thu, Jun 08, 2000 at 06:36:24PM +0100,
Michael Rogers <mrogers@cs.ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> One thing to bear in mind is that Mac-style menus only make
> sense in a click-to-focus environment. With sloppy focus it
> will often be impossible to reach the menu without losing focus
> to another app. Possibilities:

I'm aware of this, but i don't think this can be solved. If you
want global menus, just don't use focus-follows-mouse.

> * Let the Menu Applet control the window manager's focus policy. Window 
>   manager writers will not love you.

Bad idea. Menu applets don't manage windows, window managers do.

> * Assume that users have enough common sense not to use Mac-style menus with 
>   a sloppy-focus window manager. Somebody will claim that their mother does 
>   not have this much sense.

If the default were made click-to-focus this won't be a problem.

> * Implement the feature in a window manager.

Bad idea. Window managers manage windows, not provide menu
applets.

> I think you could just add code to GnomeApp which marks the
> menubar window with a "this is a menubar" property. One line of
> code. :) The window manager (any window manager - get it added
> to the new wm-spec) would detect this property and reparent the
> menubar into a special frame at the top of the screen. You
> might be able to talk the KDE people into doing the same thing
> so it will work for KDE apps under Gnome as well. In fact I
> think I recall hearing that KDE already supports Mac-stlye
> menus. I'd be interested to know how they did it.

This is exactly how KDE does it, but i think it's the wrong way.
Doing it with an applet allows the user to place the menus and
toolbars wherever they want: at the top, on the bottom, or on the
sides. I was thinking that placing the applet in a vertical panel
would make the menus vertical, like when you detach a menu with
the perforation item.

What you suggest does not offer this flexibility. What i'm doing
isn't difficult, anyway, so i don't see why i shouldn't do it the
right way.

-- 
Eric Gillespie, Jr. <*> epg@pobox.com

"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
 necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are
 going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as
 they fly overhead."
 --RFC 1925

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