Re: Location of menu bar

In article <barmar-56689B.00420813122007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Barry Margolin <barmar@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <121220070602260544%nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
nospam <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

by having a fixed menubar at the top of the screen, the menubar is
'infinitely tall' and is easy to hit with the mouse. having multiple
rows of menus or icons requires precise aim, and it's easy to
overshoot.

If this is true, then why do so many apps have toolbars? They're
usually at the top of the window, but the above logic suggests that they
should be at the top of the screen. Toolbars are those "multiple rows
of menus or icons" that you suggest are hard to use.

It's not a question of being hard to use, but of relative ease of use.
The theory behind having the menu bar at the top is Fitt's Law--
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitt%27s_law>-- which as others have noted
has been validated by experimental data.

--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002
http://www.atomicbird.com/
.

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