Just to be clear, I don’t need this myself! (Although maybe I’ll have a look anyway…) What I meant was that *if* Apple needed to answer to “moving the mouse miles”, I’d prefer they provide a short-cut like this to a Windowese “menu on every window” approach.

Grant, check out DejaMenu:

http://homepage.mac.com/khsu/DejaMenu/DejaMenu.html

It gives you a pop-up menu of the current app’s menu bar by pressing a keyboard shortcut.

It is actually easier to use the UMB, since it’s not actually “miles”, but a quick flick of the mouse. Invoking a menu item within a window requires much more attention and precision than invoking a menu item at the edge of the screen (which the cursor cannot overshoot).

“The idea that it’s confusing to use is manifestly refuted by the millions of Windows users who somehow manage to get by.”

You make a good point: millions of Windows users somehow manage to get by. (I would hate to “get by”, I would rather thrive.) But I don’t think “confusing” is the operative word; substitute “a hassle”. It is a hassle to stop what you are doing, find the menu bar among all the clutter on the screen, and precisely move the cursor to the correct menu before clicking the mouse button. With the UMB, you don’t have to stop, there’s no need to find the menu bar: a flick of the mouse (quickly move the mouse “up”) and a click — that’s all it takes.

I agree with another poster that the mouse acceleration algorithm needs some work, to compensate for the increasing size of monitors, but that’s it. In the meantime, if you don’t want to move your mouse to the top of the screen, try the contextual menus: control-click, or right-click.

“Also, imagine having multiple windows (and apps) open on the screen at once. With a global menu bar you have to pay attention to which window is in focus in order to know to what application the menu bar applies. You have to stop to think as you go to the menu bar which application you are working in.”

I’ve got multiple windows and apps open right now, and I don’t have to stop and think about which window is in focus, nor do I have to remember which app I’m in. If I have forgotten (by some bizarre fluke), the UMB takes care of most of that: there’s only one menu bar, and it applies to the window and app that I’m working in — period. In fact, I can operate the unified menu bar in the periphery of my vision — I don’t even have to look at it until the menu has already dropped down. That’s how easy a UMB is to operate.

I really have had no compaint about the finder, and really did not appreciate Swen coming off as if he were speaking on behalf of MacUsers in general … that the finder is broken and needs replacing???!!!

(For advanced users, its perhaps not a bad option, for some applications; perhaps an able-to-receive-click/type-throughs toggle for each application? I have sneaky feeling this might already be there, just hidden–?)

Passive focus, when implemented for forms, has the annoying “feature” that the cursor must lie on the content, interfering with reading the content you are typing in. You can’t move the cursor out of the way, as doing that would lose the focus… To a lesser extent this also applies to text boxes, etc., like the one I’m writing into!

Rather then “move miles”, I would prefer a short-cut that popped up a copy of the current menu-bar up at the current mouse position until an option is selected or focus is set elsewhere. It’d be a far more practical solution IMO. (re: Fitt’s Law in this case; its just as quick to hit a [simple!] key combination–?)

John Brave is right - you’re really confused here. Your article should really be titled something like “I don’t like the windowing system on Macs.”

There is a movement among Mac users to request that Apple fix the Finder, but it has nothing to do with the menu bar convention, which ALL applications follow, but rather the slow performance, locking up when accessing slow network disks, and much, much more.

The focus-follows-mouse technique you mention can be useful, but confusing for many users. Perhaps as an option it would be a good idea, so advanced users could turn it on. Again, though, that is part of the windowing system that would apply to all applications, not just the Finder.

Your article isn’t about the Finder at all. The confusion you display makes your central argument fairly unpersuasive. Go look up Fitt’s Law of interface design. Having the menu bar at the edge of the screen aids dramatically in targeting menu items - you don’t have to stop on the right spot to hit it.

This article is really just about your personal preferences regarding windowing systems - it has nothing to do with Apple finding a Finder replacement - neither the need to do so, nor even anything about the Finder at all.

Background windows and applications look different than active applications and windows in order to make it easy to tell which is the active window.

Jeff and I had an extended discussion of this issue in the Macworld forums a while back but it basically comes down to Fitt’s Law. Decades of interface research shows that a single menu bar located along the very edge of the screen is both easier to “hit” and better ergonomically. Many people who didn’t learn to use a computer on a Mac don’t realize this advantage because they still try to mouse like they did on Windows, X-Windows, or other GUIs, moving carefully along both X and Y axes to get to the desired menu item — requiring precision in two dimensions. The way you’re supposed to do it on a Mac is to quickly flick your mouse to the top of the screen, in the general direction of the desired menu, and then, if you’re not already there (no precision necessary), move side to side along the X axis (precision in a single dimension).

I do agree that today’s extremely large displays make this advantage less obvious, but I think the solution is better mouse accelleration curves — so you can still quickly flick the cursor to the menu bar — rather than abandoning a proven interface.

P.S. Discovered this post via the MyAppleMenu.com RSS feed…

Mark Dadgar, you’re right on X-Windows support in NeXTSTEP. I meant X-Mouse (or what ever it was called in NS). X-Mouse *auto-rise* can be very annoying, but I always turn that off. As to the other aspects of it, I guess it’s what you’re “raised” on and having many years of UNIX history, I absolutely love X-Mouse and sometimes tear my hair out because it’s not on the Mac. I agree with all that if it ever came to the Mac, it should be an option (as I figured it would be.)

I hear the arguments against the file bar within each Window, but it really doesn’t steal that much screen real estate. Again, I guess it’s what you’ve grown up with. As to finding that blue Apple in the top left screen to get to your settings easily, dude, Microsoft has the same thing. It’s called the Start button.