OSX Menu Mystery

[Richard Gaskin]

graham samuel wrote:
> On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 15:00:16 -0800, Richard Gaskin 
> <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:
>> 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.

Actually, the Help menu must meet two criteria:  for Windows it needs to 
be the right-most menu since that's where folks expect to find it, but 
for Mac is must be the last item in your menu group since the engine 
builds the Mac menu bar from menu contents according to their later 
order within the group.

> 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.

I was going to add my notes there, but I couldn't find the section you 
refer to.  Where's the best place for me to add them?

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  __________________________________________________
  Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev