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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: PROPOSAL: "Mac" menubar as default
From:       mosfet <mosfet () mandrakesoft ! com>
Date:       2000-04-27 20:36:04
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Andreas Pour wrote:
> 
> mosfet wrote:
> 
> [ ... ]
> >
> > Mac people don't seem to mind ;-) The Windows menubar default is shoving
> > the slower implementation down on Mac people's throat just as much as
> > the reverse.
> 
> Well, there are far fewer (about 1/20th) Mac users.  And I also think
> Mac users are less likely to switch to Linux -- they are often graphic
> artists for whom PhotoShop/etc. are a professional requirement.
> 
> If you want to make menu access *very* fast -- according to Fitts law --
> don't require moving the mouse at all.  Make a right-mouse or
> middle-mouse click pop up the top menubar, like Gimp does.  That's the
> fastest menu access possible:  you don't lose time going to the menu,
> and you don't lose time coming back.  And that way you can keep the menu
> at the top of the window, where the great majority of users expect it to
> be.
> 
> And I really am not sure about the speed issue of MacBar vs. WindowBar.
> I don't know enough about the study that says MasOS is faster, but I
> doubt it was done with the type of people I see in corporate offices who
> have grown up on Windows.
> 
> The problem with the MacOS approach is it is counter-intuitive.  It was
> fine when you had a single-tasking program with a 10 inch screen --
> there each window would fill the entire screen so in a way it looked
> like the menubar was on top of the window anyway.  But when I am working
> on a konsole on the bottom right of my 21" monitor, the top left of the
> monitor is not where I would intuitively look for controls.
> 
> Non-professionals that use computers base on intuitiveness on
> non-virtual reality, where their expectations and experiences are
> formed.  Where in the real world do you see controls for a device
> completely separated from the device?  Only with remote controls.  And
> usually remote controls are physically *closer* to you, not further from
> you.
> 
> I for one used a Mac for years before using Windows, but that was w/ a
> 10" screen.  Now I hate Mac mode.
> 
> As a final note, putting menus at the top of windows is not copying MS,
> it is conforming to the standards of the X Window System, which has
> always placed them there.
> 

<IMHO - My Opionion Only!>
The only people who say the mac-menubar is counter-intuitive is those
trained on Windows and unwilling to learn new mechanisms. Not only is
the Mac mechanism viewed as superior by it's users, the Mac interface
(esp the menubar) is widely regarded as superior by both the industry
and UI design community. Even Windows magazines pratically owned by MS
tip the hat to the Mac UI, and it is highly regarded as a better system
for non-professionals.

As a matter of fact, this list is the *only* place I have ever heard the
Windows menu mechanism called superior to that of the Mac.

</IMHO>

> Ciao,
> 
> Andreas

-- 
Daniel M. Duley - Unix developer & sys admin.
http://www.mosfet.org - The place for KDE development news.
mosfet@mandrakesoft.com
mosfet@kde.org

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