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> Having multiple monitors doesn’t remove the need to know which app you’re in or to perform actions specific to that app. Just like the Activities button, the

> Having multiple monitors doesn’t remove the need to know which app you’re in or to perform actions specific to that app. Just like the Activities button, the App Menu resides at a known location on your primary monitor and serves a crucial role as a landmark. I have to strongly disagree on this one. Having my window open in my 3rd monitor - and having to go back to the 1st monitor every time I have to use a menu item - seems like a kafkaesque nightmare to me.

bokchoi 8y ago
Indeed. MacOS used to only have the application menu bar on the primary monitor -- it was infuriating to use with large monitors or mis-matched sized screens like a laptop + external monitor. This was around 2013 or so?
lloeki 8y ago
> Having my window open in my 3rd monitor - and having to go back to the 1st monitor every time I have to use a menu item - seems like a kafkaesque nightmare to me. Indeed, I had to suffer that experience on macOS at some point, and it just kills all the benefits of Fitts's law. There were glorious hacks of apps dedicated to restoring sanity by making the menubar present on all screens, until the feature went native. Nonetheless it does not detract from the fact that I find the menubar concept insanely good compared to per window menus as Windows and Linux had (although this was a configurable in KDE, the implementation was disastrous).
- mariusmg 8y ago
  Menubar concept never made sense to me. If i have a window on the bottom right of the screen, why should i have to go to top left side of the screen to interact with its menu ? This is literally the same issue with monitors but on a smaller scale.
  - gaius 8y ago
    Historically it’s from a time when mice were new and the idea was you could always just push to the top of the screen and never miss the menu (source: HCI lecturer at college) and of course screens being small having only one menu bar saved space too
    - lloeki 8y ago
      As I said, this is Fitt's law[0], and it's a very valid thing that goes well, well beyond HCI. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law
  - lloeki 8y ago
    This is because macOS uses a document-centric model, in which case the window is a document, as opposed to Windows where the window is the application. In the former case it is therefore perfectly possible for the application to be running when no document (hence no window) is opened.
drivingmenuts 8y ago
MacOS is still relying on design cues from the days when all they had was a 7" monitor screen. Additionally, it's designed for the hardware it's run on: a single screen laptop or desktop computer. Yes, it can run on multiple monitors, but's not really designed to do that. I don't think Apple has ever totally internalized the idea of multiple monitors or even big hardware (except for a brief time when we had a real Mac Pro).

bokchoi 8y ago

Indeed. MacOS used to only have the application menu bar on the primary monitor -- it was infuriating to use with large monitors or mis-matched sized screens like a laptop + external monitor. This was around 2013 or so?

lloeki 8y ago

> Having my window open in my 3rd monitor - and having to go back to the 1st monitor every time I have to use a menu item - seems like a kafkaesque nightmare to me. Indeed, I had to suffer that experience on macOS at some point, and it just kills all the benefits of Fitts's law. There were glorious hacks of apps dedicated to restoring sanity by making the menubar present on all screens, until the feature went native. Nonetheless it does not detract from the fact that I find the menubar concept insanely good compared to per window menus as Windows and Linux had (although this was a configurable in KDE, the implementation was disastrous).

mariusmg 8y ago
Menubar concept never made sense to me. If i have a window on the bottom right of the screen, why should i have to go to top left side of the screen to interact with its menu ? This is literally the same issue with monitors but on a smaller scale.
- gaius 8y ago
  Historically it’s from a time when mice were new and the idea was you could always just push to the top of the screen and never miss the menu (source: HCI lecturer at college) and of course screens being small having only one menu bar saved space too
  - lloeki 8y ago
    As I said, this is Fitt's law[0], and it's a very valid thing that goes well, well beyond HCI. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law
- lloeki 8y ago
  This is because macOS uses a document-centric model, in which case the window is a document, as opposed to Windows where the window is the application. In the former case it is therefore perfectly possible for the application to be running when no document (hence no window) is opened.

drivingmenuts 8y ago

MacOS is still relying on design cues from the days when all they had was a 7" monitor screen. Additionally, it's designed for the hardware it's run on: a single screen laptop or desktop computer. Yes, it can run on multiple monitors, but's not really designed to do that. I don't think Apple has ever totally internalized the idea of multiple monitors or even big hardware (except for a brief time when we had a real Mac Pro).