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I still think a middle mouse button (actual button, not a wheel) that brings up a context-sensitive menu wherever you are in the window, as used in RISC OS, is

by gpvos 8y ago

I still think a middle mouse button (actual button, not a wheel) that brings up a context-sensitive menu wherever you are in the window, as used in RISC OS, is much better than the other currently popular ways to implement menus.

andrepd 8y ago
Isn't that what the right mouse button does?
- gpvos 8y ago
  Compared to other OSes? Partially. If my memory serves me right, on RISC OS, the middle button menu is the only menu; there is no menu at the top of a window or screen, so it also includes the File, Edit, Help, etc., submenus. So as a concept it is much cleaner. And the right button extends a selection (so you don't have to drag to select, saves your wrist and is more precise), and often has an alternate meaning when clicking on an item, but never gives a menu. Also good to note that RISC OS had these context-sensitive menus before the Mac or Windows did.
  - twic 8y ago
    The buttons were Select, Menu, and Adjust! Adjust did different things in different contexts, and i never had a good mental model of why it did what it did. The other nice thing about the RISC OS menus was that the 'Save As' option (whatever it was called) would pop out a submenu which had an icon of the file in it - you would then drag that icon to wherever you wanted to save it. That struck me as a lovely implementation of the "spatial file manager" idea, and immediately raised the possibility of having other kinds of terminal menus that would do special things.
    - Symbiote 8y ago
      This screenshot shows both features. The middle button can be pressed on every icon (!Alarm, :0 being the floppy disc drive, the pen and ink, clock etc) plus the editor window. The icon above "TextFile" would be dragged to a file window. The only file window shows the ROM applications, so it's actually read-only and there's nowhere useful to drag this icon. Clicking !Alarm etc with the left mouse button selects one at a time, right clicking extends the selection. There are few other things to usefully right click on. The scroll arrows / bar scroll in the opposite direction with a right click. Selecting a menu option from the pop-up menu with a right click keeps the menu open. The other really nice thing was the anti-aliasing, which was wonderful. http://www.linuxvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Risc_OS_311_Desktop-large.jpg http://www.linuxvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Risc_OS...

by gpvos 8y ago

andrepd 8y ago

Isn't that what the right mouse button does?

gpvos 8y ago
Compared to other OSes? Partially. If my memory serves me right, on RISC OS, the middle button menu is the only menu; there is no menu at the top of a window or screen, so it also includes the File, Edit, Help, etc., submenus. So as a concept it is much cleaner. And the right button extends a selection (so you don't have to drag to select, saves your wrist and is more precise), and often has an alternate meaning when clicking on an item, but never gives a menu. Also good to note that RISC OS had these context-sensitive menus before the Mac or Windows did.
- twic 8y ago
  The buttons were Select, Menu, and Adjust! Adjust did different things in different contexts, and i never had a good mental model of why it did what it did. The other nice thing about the RISC OS menus was that the 'Save As' option (whatever it was called) would pop out a submenu which had an icon of the file in it - you would then drag that icon to wherever you wanted to save it. That struck me as a lovely implementation of the "spatial file manager" idea, and immediately raised the possibility of having other kinds of terminal menus that would do special things.
  - Symbiote 8y ago
    This screenshot shows both features. The middle button can be pressed on every icon (!Alarm, :0 being the floppy disc drive, the pen and ink, clock etc) plus the editor window. The icon above "TextFile" would be dragged to a file window. The only file window shows the ROM applications, so it's actually read-only and there's nowhere useful to drag this icon. Clicking !Alarm etc with the left mouse button selects one at a time, right clicking extends the selection. There are few other things to usefully right click on. The scroll arrows / bar scroll in the opposite direction with a right click. Selecting a menu option from the pop-up menu with a right click keeps the menu open. The other really nice thing was the anti-aliasing, which was wonderful. http://www.linuxvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Risc_OS_311_Desktop-large.jpg http://www.linuxvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Risc_OS...