Scott Wallace wrote:

> I've noticed that Stephen Pope's "friendly-for-first-time-user" image
> uses the default morphic flaps, but sets all of them so that they do
> not pop open on mouseover.
>
> I'm thinking that perhaps that's a better default generally.  I only
> find the pop-out-on-mouseover flap behavior to be friendly when I'm
> operating full-screen, which comparatively few people do.
>
> For most flaps -- especially those that serve as "parts bins" (e.g.
> Supplies and Tools flaps), but also for flaps one hopes to use as
> "parking places" or to hold, say, a trash-can -- it (perhaps) makes
> sense to have them continue to open/close on *dragover* even if we
> remove the responsiveness to mouseover, in order to reduce the number
> of clicks required to complete the most commonly-needed functions,
> though there are rather evenly-balanced arguments on both sides here.
>
> And, whatever else we do, probably the "Menu" flap -- if we retain it
> at all -- should only open up when proactively clicked on or dragged.
> Otherwise this can be startling (perhaps overwhelming is the better
> word) and it quickly gets annoying if it pops out a few times when
> you weren't planning for it to do so.
>
> Or perhaps the Menu flap should not exist at all on the
> "first-time-user" screen?
>
> I'm interested in hearing any opinions on these matters.
>
> Of course, the various properties of any flap can be readily changed
> from the tab's halo menu, so that for the user who has started to
> feel comfortable in Squeak, configuring the flaps to be exactly the
> way one wants them is within easy reach.  But what point of departure
> should we give our first-time user?
>
>    -- Scott

I have found that when  I  change the behavior of the menu flap to not
pop up on mouseOver
it still pops up as an invisible morph causing really weird behavior. I
haven't looked
into the code yet but there is something going on that should not. ;-).
It should anyhow
only be activated by clicking, it's the slowest flap on my machine.
(takes looooong time to open and
close, and somehow I trigger it all the time.)
I think the menu morph should be there, cause some menus are really hard
to find, or you simply do not know they exist, so it's good to to have a
access to them. Maybe the novice mode preference should trigger it.
Another thing is the differentiation between vertical and horizontal
flaps. Shouldn't it be possible to
easily change their location. But in general I like the flaps and they
make morphic a good deal better.
Karl