RE: [Tile-dev] Menubutton look in xpnative theme

[Jeff H. <je...@Ac...>]

[hopefully SF is letting my mail through again ...]

Joe English wrote:
> Schelte Bron wrote:
> > The menubutton in the xpnative theme doesn't look like a button
> > at all. [...]
> > But that's all avoiding the real issue: I think a menubutton
> > should look like a button in the xpnative theme, just like it
> > does in all the other themes. The toolbar look should be
> > obtained by specifying: -style Toolbutton.
> 
> Which brings up a good question: what should [ttk::menubutton]s
> look like by default?  There are a number of possibilities:
> 
> (1) a borderless, plain label with minimal padding, suitable
> for use in a menubar; (2) a distinct button with standard
> button border and an indicator (usually a downward-pointing
> arrow) on the right side; or (3) a toolbar-style button, flat
> by default, raises when the mouse cursor hovers over it.
> 
> (1) is the default for core [menubutton]s, probably for
> compatibility with Tk 3; nowadays it's better to use [menu]s
> instead of a series of [menubutton]s to build menu bars.
> (2) is what you get with [tk_optionMenu].  Tile uses option
> (2) in most themes, except for Windows XP where it uses (3).
> 
> I can't find very many modern UIs that use menubuttons other
> than in toolbars; comboboxes (read-only or otherwise) are much 
> more common (though some KDE apps use something like optionmenus).

On OS X, menubuttons are more common in certain contexts.  See
my changes to the GUI Builder toolbar here:
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/14522

The Justification setting is a menubutton, consistent with OS X
apps.  In fact, the font size should be a menubutton as well,
but I kept the combo to be able to edit it.  I should also be
using the menubutton where I use some spinboxes on OS X.
Windows definitely prefers the readonly combobox instead, and
that is somewhat my preference as well, but the menubutton does
seem a little more polished on OS X (likely because it is much
more in use).

We need to maintain the indicator as mentioned in (2), as that
is what the menubutton needs.  In any case, OS X still seems
to be the heavy mb user, and the look is "just right" there.
It might be nice to recognize -style Toolbutton to control the
Windows behavior that is currently fixed toolbar oriented.

What I'm really curious about is whether we can effect some
sort of button/menu widget properly, as is common in 90% of
modern apps.  This is the button that has a main action item,
but to the right is the dropdown indicator that, if clicked,
drops a menu instead.  The menu item has an action, but the
button never changes from its main command text/image.

Jeff