Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!lighthouse!rock
From: rock@lighthouse.com (Roger Rock Rosner)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Menu Interaction Techniques
Message-ID: <1989Sep27.192121.2537@lighthouse.com>
Date: 27 Sep 89 19:21:21 GMT
References: <2722@trantor.harris-atd.com> <16179@brunix.UUCP> <19812@mimsy.UUCP>
Organization: Lighthouse Design, Ltd.
Lines: 25
In-reply-to: don@brillig.umd.edu's message of 26 Sep 89 23:22:46 GMT


In article <19812@mimsy.UUCP>, don@brillig.umd.edu (Don Hopkins) writes:

>Proper handling of pop-up Pie Menus near the screen edge is important.
>The menu should idealy be centered at the point where the cursor was
>when the mouse button was pressed.  If the menu must be moved a certain
>amount from its ideal location, so that it fits entirely on the screen,
>then the cursor should be "warped" by that same amount.

I am quite excited about this idea of Pie Menus, but I must disagree
with the above point.  Admittedly I have no background in this
subject, but I (and, it seems, Apple and NeXT) consider "warping" the
mouse an egregious user interface sin.  

Optimizing for "muscle memory" would seem to preclude automatically
relocating the mouse (although partially obscured Pie Menus are
probably not so great either).

Roger Rosner
Lighthouse Design, Ltd.
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