[whatwg] Thoughts on Context and Popup Menus for Web Applications

[Matthew Thomas]

On 11 Nov, 2004, at 5:11 AM, Matthew Raymond wrote:
> ...
>    Who's to say the UA couldn't just append the menu to the context 
> menu? Or append the browser context menu as a submenu?

Reasonableness. Shortcut menus (aka context menus) become more 
difficult to use the more items they have (as closeness to screen edges 
require that they open in a direction other than southeast), and 
submenus of shortcut menus are extremely difficult to use for the same 
reason squared.

> Or provide a context button as part of the control?

In which case the author might as well use a proper menubutton, with a 
meaningful icon or label and a position that suits them.

> Or allow access to the context menu when an additional key is pressed 
> (such as alt + [right-click])?
> ...

That might be possible on Windows, but on Mac OS Option+click is 
already used for copying, Shift+click for extending selection, 
Command+click often for grab-scrolling, and Ctrl+click for opening the 
shortcut menu in the first place.

I think we may be venturing into "no practical solution for the 
platforms some user agents are running on" territory again.

-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/