Talk:Context menu

Popup menu and Context menu are distinct concepts, not equivalents
Popup menu redirects here, but is actually something different: a popup menu is (roughly) a menu originating from someplace else than the menubar, while a context menu is a very specific application of a popup menu that deals with a secondary mouse button or key command. Could we separate the two inside this article or create a second article for popup menu? Comments? Peter S. 00:22, 27 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Additionally the Macintosh, a "pop-up menu" is the proper term for what is usually known as a "drop-down list box" according to the |Apple UI guidelines.Exia 05:50, 14 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The link to Popup Menu (disambiguation) appears to serve no useful purpose. 82.163.24.100 (talk) 13:31, 19 September 2010 (UTC)


 * There should be something about, or a link to, context menus in Web pages (as I would like to read it) - there is a contextmenu property, and it seems that replacement menus are possible. 82.163.24.100 (talk) 13:31, 19 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Changed talk-section title from "Untitled" to something more appropriate: "Popup menu and Content menu are distinct concepts, not equivalents". The article uses image of Mozilla browsers, wherein the old XUL/Overlay did indeed allow you to create context menus by using menupopup or later, popup, along with menuitem elements.  This may be one example of the confusion of the terms.  Popups as a concept are generally equivalent to the term "popovers", and have nothing at all to do with menus.  A popup or popover is merely content that is displayed on screen in association with a user-triggered event (the WebExtensions associates "popup" with a left-click on the "browser action" button, mouse over an "a" link or an "img" and you get a different type of minimal popup called a "tooltip" though that again is a distinct concept, some old XUL/Overlay icons would display info with no clicks), or even totally automated with programming (i.e. advertisement popups or popunders, though these are most often implemented in the form of a new window, but technically could be a popup on the same page).  I can't update based on 1st hand experience, but I hope this comment helps anyone doing research on how to fix up this page.Warp9pnt9 (talk) 16:53, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

RISC OS or NeXTSTEP?
From TFA:
 * "The NEXTSTEP operating system further developed the idea, incorporating a feature whereby the right or middle mouse button brought the main menu (which was vertical and automatically changed depending on context) to the location of the mouse ..."

Since NeXTSTEP was first previewed in 1986 and ArthurOS (to be renamed RISC OS) was introduced in 1987, did Acorn steal the idea from NeXT? You can see examples of innovative Acorn menuing in RISC OS 2 on my site, although fewer pictures exist of the original ArthurOS. I did try to get an emulator for it going, but no avail.

RISC OS, though, has no menubar, relying solely on middle mouse to bring up the main menu bar as a semi-context menu. NeXT's menu palette did not exist in RISC OS; Acorn devoted a whole mouse button, named Menu, for the menu system. The right mouse button, adjust, was special and acted a bit like opt-click on a Mac, or performed the reverse action of left (select), e.g. right-click on a scroll bar button scrolled the other way, so you could switch from scrolling down to up simply by using another finger.

I've never seen anyone else copy Acorn's weirder idea though: dialog boxes as submenus ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ghiraddje (talk • contribs) 03:43, August 26, 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft recommended documentation term
The cited reference does not say anything about calling it a "shortcut menu" in user documentation, it just says that in documentation they should always be referred to as a "context menu" - specifically not a "shortcut menu". Perhaps it has changed since the comment was first made here? If so, it should be updated now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.159.33.35 (talk) 12:08, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Does any OS have context menus that can be made to stay open?
One of the things I loved about RISC OS is that, by using Adjust (right mouse button) instead of Select (left mouse button), you could click on a context menu option and the context menu would stay open. This drives me crazy sometimes on Windows, especially if I need to tick a few options three levels deep. 212.9.31.12 (talk)

Proof
"Context menus first appeared in the Smalltalk environment on the Xerox Alto computer, where they were called pop-up menus; they were invented by Dan Ingalls in the mid-1970s." This sentence is proved in a fairly clear manner by the two provided references (albeit not perfectly). However, a citation is need to prove that NEXTSTEP further the pop-up menu idea. --75.71.229.53 (talk) 00:01, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

A Bit Of Circularity?
1) ".. the context menu appears near the focused widget .." 2) Widgets/Command input/Adjustment handle, Button, Context menu .. 194.174.76.21 (talk) 11:22, 18 December 2019 (UTC) Marco Pagliero Berlin