OSX Menu Mystery

[graham samuel]

On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 15:00:16 -0800, Richard Gaskin 
<ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:
>> ll. Maybe I'm just trying to make things too complicated.
>
> Howdy Graham -

Hi Richard
>
> Still loving your new digs in Toulouse?

Sure am (nearer Carcassonne than Toulouse in fact) - just signed the 
contract today to have the roof fixed. Hope we can still afford to live 
here when it's done! Hope so - since we got broadband in January there 
seem less and less reasons to go back to the UK... anyway:
>
> Here's the deal:
>
> In Mac Classic, Windows, and most Linux window managers the
> "Preferences..." item is the last item in the Edit menu by convention,
> while OS X uniquely places this under the application menu.
>
> For the convenience of the developer, if you make your menus
> HIG-compliant for 98& of the world by putting an item named
> "Preferences..." as the last item in your Edit menu under a divider,
> when running in OS X the divider is removed and the item is
> automagically moved to the application menu.
>
> The "About..." item works similarly:  96% of the world places this as
> the last item in the Help menu, but Mac Classic puts it under the apple
> menu and OS X puts it under the application menu.  As with
> "Preferences...", making the last two items of your Help menu a divider
> followed by "About..." will take care of most platforms and the engine
> will automagically move them to the appropriate places for Classic and 
> OS X.
>
> "Quit" works pretty much the same too:  if you make the last two items
> of your File menu a divider followed by "Quit", the engine will move 
> the
> item to the application menu for you in OS X.
>
> It may seem odd at first, but having spent many hours in meetings with
> the SuperCard team many years ago when they were still planning a
> Windows version, I must say that Scott Raney's solution -- once grokked
> -- is a wonder of simplicity and automation for HIG-compliant apps.

As expected from you, a brilliantly clear explanation! I take it the 
'Help' menu **must** be the rightmost menu, no? I forgot this, which 
probably led to OSX/Rev making some odd decisions.

Shouldn't this complete explanation go into the docs - maybe as a 
webnote (haven't understood these yet, but I take it they are 
developer-generated addenda to the main Rev effort). AFAIK the docs 
only talk about the 'Quit' item and don't really discuss how the 
transformation from one menu to another takes place.

Thanks very much

Graham

----------------------------------------
Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK and France