4 ms·

I've tried Haiku many times over the years, but still can't get used to the way menus work. It was hard a decade back, it's harder when I'm 40. I like everythi

by jeswin 5y ago

I've tried Haiku many times over the years, but still can't get used to the way menus work. It was hard a decade back, it's harder when I'm 40. I like everything else about it.

unwind 5y ago
Uh, not having used BeOS (but I remember really yearning for it in the mid-90s in college), it would be easier to understand your comment if you clarified. In what way is menu interaction different in BeOS/Haiku? It's one of those things that probably takes way less time for you to describe, than for me (and whoever else might be wondering) to go and find out on my own, so it would be super helpful. Thanks.
- jeswin 5y ago
  I think it could be a personal preference, but I find multi-level cascading menus[1] somewhat difficult to use. [1]: Posting the relevant image from sibling comment https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png
  - anthk 5y ago
    Haiku OS need an option to set sticky menus.
    - somewhatbetter 5y ago
      Why generalize? You need that.
      - selfhoster11 5y ago
        Hence, "option". So you can toggle the feature on and off. Please don't deride people for needing special accommodations in their daily driver software.
        somewhatbetter 5y ago
        Then you can implement it, correct?
  - pavon 5y ago
    I use that same sort of menu in XFCE for quickly accessing a folder in a deep hierarchy, and I really like it. A lot faster than navigating through a file explorer. That said I've used another application on Windows that had deeply nested menus, and hated it. The difference was in how the menus were implemented. The menus for this application would close if the mouse moved off the menu at all, while the GTK ones do not - they only close if you hover over a different menu item (opening it instead) or click off the menu. That made navigating the application's menus a tedious exercise in "threading the needle" with the mouse cursor. I assume BeOS didn't make that mistake.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
renox 5y ago
I've tried BeOS a looonnng time ago (it was very responsive but it didn't have software) but I don't remember anything specials about menus, care to refresh my memory?
somewhatbetter 5y ago
The dive-through menu is one of the best feature in the OS. There is nothing wrong with it. https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png
- jeswin 5y ago
  Thanks for the image, upvoting you. I think it could be a personal preference, but I can't handle it very well with the mouse.
slantyyz 5y ago
I remember following Haiku (I think it was originally called OpenBEOS) right from the get go. I used to read updates on its development progress about it on OSNews. It looks like all the posts of the Haiku's progress going back to the early 2000s are still on the OSNews site (https://www.osnews.com/topic/beos-derivatives/page/19/ https://www.osnews.com/topic/beos-derivatives/page/19/). I think I gave up on following its progress (or lack of it) at around 2004. I liked BeOS a lot... in the late 90s and early 2000s... I may still have the BeOS installer floppy (can't remember if there was also a CD in the package) somewhere in my basement. Haiku is definitely not something I would use today, but I'm still glad they're still making forward progress.

by jeswin 5y ago

I've tried Haiku many times over the years, but still can't get used to the way menus work. It was hard a decade back, it's harder when I'm 40. I like everything else about it.

unwind 5y ago

Uh, not having used BeOS (but I remember really yearning for it in the mid-90s in college), it would be easier to understand your comment if you clarified. In what way is menu interaction different in BeOS/Haiku? It's one of those things that probably takes way less time for you to describe, than for me (and whoever else might be wondering) to go and find out on my own, so it would be super helpful. Thanks.

jeswin 5y ago
I think it could be a personal preference, but I find multi-level cascading menus[1] somewhat difficult to use. [1]: Posting the relevant image from sibling comment https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png
- anthk 5y ago
  Haiku OS need an option to set sticky menus.
  - somewhatbetter 5y ago
    Why generalize? You need that.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
      Hence, "option". So you can toggle the feature on and off. Please don't deride people for needing special accommodations in their daily driver software.
      - somewhatbetter 5y ago
        Then you can implement it, correct?
- pavon 5y ago
  I use that same sort of menu in XFCE for quickly accessing a folder in a deep hierarchy, and I really like it. A lot faster than navigating through a file explorer. That said I've used another application on Windows that had deeply nested menus, and hated it. The difference was in how the menus were implemented. The menus for this application would close if the mouse moved off the menu at all, while the GTK ones do not - they only close if you hover over a different menu item (opening it instead) or click off the menu. That made navigating the application's menus a tedious exercise in "threading the needle" with the mouse cursor. I assume BeOS didn't make that mistake.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

renox 5y ago

I've tried BeOS a looonnng time ago (it was very responsive but it didn't have software) but I don't remember anything specials about menus, care to refresh my memory?

somewhatbetter 5y ago

The dive-through menu is one of the best feature in the OS. There is nothing wrong with it. https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png https://www.haiku-os.org/files/slideshow/drilldown.png

jeswin 5y ago
Thanks for the image, upvoting you. I think it could be a personal preference, but I can't handle it very well with the mouse.

slantyyz 5y ago

I remember following Haiku (I think it was originally called OpenBEOS) right from the get go. I used to read updates on its development progress about it on OSNews. It looks like all the posts of the Haiku's progress going back to the early 2000s are still on the OSNews site (https://www.osnews.com/topic/beos-derivatives/page/19/ https://www.osnews.com/topic/beos-derivatives/page/19/). I think I gave up on following its progress (or lack of it) at around 2004. I liked BeOS a lot... in the late 90s and early 2000s... I may still have the BeOS installer floppy (can't remember if there was also a CD in the package) somewhere in my basement. Haiku is definitely not something I would use today, but I'm still glad they're still making forward progress.