Re: Menu systems on multiple platforms
> How do you folks handle designing menubars for both Mac and Windows? I have only just begun creating menus in MetaCard, but so far I am pleased with the results. I created a group of buttons whose content becomes the items of the menu, and a tab nests the menuItems to create hierarchical menus. This menubar appears inside the window of the stack when the stack is run under Windoze, as it does under Mac when the "editMenus" property is true, but when the "editMenus" property is set to false and your on a Mac, then the buttons scroll off-screen and the system-wide menubar becomes your custom menubar. > As we've discussed here before, the ideal solution would be > to have support for Windows' MDI ("Multiple Document Interface")... I am not sure what this implies, or whether my solution is compliant with it. > so we could make one menu bar and it would be at the top of > the MDI parent window on Windows, and in the menu bar on Mac OS. That seems to me what is happening with my solution. With the "editMenus" property set to false, the menubar appears at the top of the screen, while the same menubar appears in each card window that contains it when using Windoze. > a) Replicate the menubar at the top of each window This is not as bad as it sounds. The menubar is a group. You can place the menubar group in the background, e.g. so that it appears on all cards of the stack without any unnecessary duplication. > Upside: More closely complies with the Win HIG Yeah, if and whenever the menubar is inside the window instead of at the top of the screen. > Requires a compromise to either the Mac HIG or Win HIG... Not necessarily. > you either make complete copies of the menu bar for all windows... The way that I am working now, this is true, albeit it is easy to script this copying on newStack. > and then have things look right on Mac but having irrelevant > menu items in Windows, or you tailor each menu bar group for > each window, and it feels more Windows-like but breaks the Mac HIG > (disabling menu items is considered better than having > the menu items appear and disappear). I have tried enabling/diabling menus and menuItems, with the following statements, and it works! disable menu "Text" enable menu "Text" disable menuItem 4 of menu "Edit" enable menuItem 4 of menu "Edit" hilite menuItem 9 of menu "Text" > Another downside is that you have to be careful > that all your scripts which update menu items, > like a standard Windows menu, are all updated; > increases overall maintenance costs. Humm ... kind of unavoidable. > b) Detach the menubar into a separate window > Upside: Dirt simple to update; one menu bar lowers > maintenance costs > Downside: Not very Windows-like at all. You mean a separate floating window, but what about the technique that MetaCard uses itself for its menubar? Inside the stackInfo dialog, you specify which stack will be this stack's menubar. Type: topLevel "MetaCard menu bar" and you will see that the menubar is a stack. But, when it's in use, the menubar is at the top of the screen. Switching stacks can change the menubar, but there is a property that allows you to specify the default menubar when a stack (any) does not have a menubar specified. > Given these trade-offs, which model do you folks use, > and why do you prefer it? Need I say more ;-) Alain Farmer mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/ Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard@lists.runrev.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.
Re: Menu systems on multiple platforms
on 3/13/01 10:41 PM, Richard Gaskin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > How do you folks handle designing menubars for both Mac and Windows? > > As we've discussed here before, the ideal solution would be to have support > for Windows' MDI ("Multiple Document Interface"), so we could make one menu > bar and it would be at the top of the MDI parent window on Windows, and in > the menu bar on Mac OS. > > But with MC as it is today, without MDI, we have two choices: > > a) Replicate the menubar at the top of each window > Upside: More closely complies with the Win HIG > Downside: Requires a compromise to either the Mac HIG or > Win HIG, in that you either make complete copies > of the menu bar for all windows and then have things > look right on Mac but having irrelevant menu items > in Windows, or you tailor each menu bar group for > each window, and it feels more Windows-like but > breaks the Mac HIG (disabling menu items is > considered better than having the menu items > appear and disappear). > Another downside is that you have to be careful > that all your scripts which update menu items, > like a standard Windows menu, are all updated > needed; increases overall maintenance costs. > > b) Detach the menubar into a separate window > Upside: Dirt simple to update; one menu bar lowers > maintenance costs > Downside: Not very Windows-like at all. > > > Given these trade-offs, which model do you folks use, and why do you prefer > it? I have been using option B. I have not received much flak from win users. In fact, I have had only one user really ream me for it. But, I have been considering looking at option A. It will be a lot more work to do it that way though. The reason for option B is that I develop on a Mac first. I am a big Mac fan and always start there. It is just a few more lines of code to make to all work on the PC. Development time is the biggest consideration at this point. -Mark Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard@lists.runrev.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.
RE: Menu systems on multiple platforms
b > > > How do you folks handle designing menubars for both Mac and Windows? > > As we've discussed here before, the ideal solution would be to > have support > for Windows' MDI ("Multiple Document Interface"), so we could > make one menu > bar and it would be at the top of the MDI parent window on Windows, and in > the menu bar on Mac OS. > > But with MC as it is today, without MDI, we have two choices: > > a) Replicate the menubar at the top of each window > Upside: More closely complies with the Win HIG > Downside: Requires a compromise to either the Mac HIG or > Win HIG, in that you either make complete copies > of the menu bar for all windows and then have things > look right on Mac but having irrelevant menu items > in Windows, or you tailor each menu bar group for > each window, and it feels more Windows-like but > breaks the Mac HIG (disabling menu items is > considered better than having the menu items > appear and disappear). > Another downside is that you have to be careful > that all your scripts which update menu items, > like a standard Windows menu, are all updated > needed; increases overall maintenance costs. > > b) Detach the menubar into a separate window > Upside: Dirt simple to update; one menu bar lowers > maintenance costs > Downside: Not very Windows-like at all. > > > Given these trade-offs, which model do you folks use, and why do > you prefer > it? > > -- > Richard Gaskin > Fourth World Media Corporation > Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web > _ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com > Tel: 323-225-3717 ICQ#60248349Fax: 323-225-0716 > > > > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard@lists.runrev.com/ > Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm > Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list. > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard@lists.runrev.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.