Re: NSPopUpButton is too smart for it's own good
Re: NSPopUpButton is too smart for it's own good
- Subject: Re: NSPopUpButton is too smart for it's own good
- From: Steve Bennett <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 15:15:32 -0500
Actually, what we want is the behavior of a *Carbon* popup menu. We've been
using this behavior in our old app back to the System 7 days and not a
single user seems to have ever had any trouble with it. A popup menu
actually makes perfect sense for the item - there's always exactly one
selected item, and the title reflects that item. It's just that we have
some user defined items, and the title may have additional displayed
information.
The problem is that Cocoa adds it's own twist to the interface, and doesn't
let you do it your way anymore. Which I find strange - almost every other
thing we've done in Cocoa makes it *easier* to do things the way you want.
This is the first area we've found which doesn't follow that philosophy...
If I was designing a new app, I might go ahead and figure out a new
mechanism, but this is a port of an existing app, and changing the interface
drastically won't go over well.
-->Steve Bennett
on 2/7/02 2:37 PM, Erik M. Buck at email@hidden wrote:
>
I would answer your question by observing that you do not want a
>
pop-up-button. You describe very specific behavior that is not the behavior
>
of a pop-up-button. If you make a control that looks like a pop-up-button
>
but behaves as you describe, I expect that users will be very confused. You
>
should not radically change the behavior of a user interface element but
>
make it look the same. Look and feel go together.
>
>
You need to create a new control and don't make it look like a
>
pop-up-button.
>
The behavior you want is so far from the expected behavior of a
>
pop-up-button that I would not suggest starting with a pop-up-button. Start
>
with NSButton or NSControl.
>
>
Actually, on second reading, it seems to me that what you want in a simple
>
NSMatrix with check boxes or possibly custom cells. Manage the order and
>
selection of the items within the matrix yourself. If you don't want it
>
visible all of the time, use a button to open a little modal window
>
containing the matrix. You can align the window with the button to make it
>
work like a pop-up-button. You can set the title of the button to whatever
>
you want.
>
>
> <snip original message on NSPopUpButton foibles>
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