On Friday 07 February 2003 11:48 am, Alan Kay wrote:
	> Or you could just overflow sideways to the right with extra
	> columns. I don't think there are any menus that wouldn't fit with
	> this strategy + you get to see all of the items ...
	
>From time to time, I have to fill out web forms where I'm required to
supply the name of the country I'm in.  It's "New Zealand".  The easy
way is to just have a text box and let me type it in.  Some people try
to be clever, and provide a menu with all the countries in the world.
There are about 240 countries, making a long menu.

The version of Netscape I use _can_ handle menus that long, and it does
it just that way, by overflowing sideways.  It is _amazingly_ painful to
use.  It usually takes me about 10 minutes of coping with overflow panels
that flick in and out of existence to enter something I can type in a
couple of seconds.  Overflowing sideways only works tolerably for menus
that are up to twice as long as would fit without overflow.  In the name
of suffering humanity, DON'T DO THAT.

Scrolling menus scale a lot better than sideways overflow.