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On Wed, 14 Jul 1999, Norton, Chris wrote:

<snip>

> 
> OK.  So now you have the light green screen and you'd like to actually do
> something useful.  Now you have to explore the popup mouse menus.  This can
> be a bit frustrating.  I think I'd prefer it if the base Squeak window, e.g.
> the light green window, had flaps, or a "Start Bar", or a floating tool
> button bar that can't be accidentally deleted, 

There's nothing in Squeak that can't be accidentally deleted ;-)

> or a drop down window menu
> across the top of the unmaximized main window (e.g. like virtually every
> word processing application).  All sorts of useful buttons/options could be
> displayed.  A few come to mind immediately:  "browser...", "workspace...",
> "file list...", "preferences...", "sample applications..." (would restore
> the "Play with me" windows to their default look), "update from server",
> "morphic project", "MVC project", "maximize / minimize", "quit", etc..
> 

OK, now I see where you're coming from.  I imagine it won't be too many releases 
down the line that Morphic will be the default, and MVC optional.  At that time, it will
be possible to have flaps, etc. immediately visible to the newbie.

> Perhaps this could be a preference that you could "turn off" if you're not a
> newbie and you like a clean window.  I believe that I saw somebody had a
> similar idea before (it might have been Reiner or STP).  The idea isn't new,
> but I think it would make Squeak a lot more "user friendly" if we didn't
> have to peek & poke for features under mouse buttons.

I agree, and feel that it would probably be a good idea to have global flaps 'on' by 
default, rather than have newbies flounder around for a while before discovering them.

> 
> Anyway, that's my biggest "presentation beef" with Squeak.  There are so
> many great UI features in Squeak, especially in Morphic.  It seems a shame
> that nobody has implemented a SystemWindowWithMenu class or your basic
> ToolButtonBar class.  Maybe I'll have to find the time to do this myself.
> 

Well, you can drop your own buttons onto flaps.  Is this close enough to what you are
envisioning?


Josh


> Ciao for now!
> 
> ---==> Chris
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