Re: GTK+ menu problems/suggestions

[Felix Bellaby <felix pooh u-net com>]

Owen Taylor writes:
 > 
 > Marko Macek <Marko.Macek@gmx.net> writes:
 > 
 > > Apart from the conditional cascade menus which gtk+ doesn't have yet:
 > 
 > OK, a question: 
 > 
 >  What is a conditional cascade menu?

I first heard of these from Marko, as well. (o:

They were part of the OS/2 GUI and are used in the menu system in the 
icewm. They have two possible actions for each cascading menu item.

The first action is obtained with the mouse by pressing on the 
menu item label or with the keyboard using Enter. This first action
does NOT cause a cascade.

The second action is obtained with the mouse by pressing (or dragging
over) the cascade arrow (which appears as a little button) or with the 
keyboard by pressing ">". This second action causes the menu to 
cascade as in Motif, gtk, etc.

IMHO, the best usage binds the first action to one of the items 
included in the cascaded menu. This means that you can select 
a "default" menu item from a submenu without cascading it.
However, the first action can be bound to anything at all.

I think these menu items are a good piece of GUI design. 

The main drawback that I find with them is that they require good 
mouse control. You have to hit the (tiny) cascade arrow button to 
generate the cascade and when the submenu is mapped on the opposite 
side of the parent shell from the cascade arrow then you have to 
avoid moving outside the conditional cascade menu item as you 
cross over to the submenu (otherwise it unmaps and you have to go 
back across to find the cascade arrow button again).

However, this mouse skill becomes easier as you become used to
using the widget and you start to see the advantages of being
able to avoid cascading the submenu every time.

Felix