Shoot, I just realized I failed to respond to a dozen or so posts between you :-p
I understand Fitt’s law, but I don’t do things by rote memory - I think about what action I need to take before I take it. Thus it is much more reasonable for me to interact with a given window by clicking a menu connected with that window than it is for me to take a time-out to think about which window I currently have highlighted and then click on the top of the screen, well away from the window, to act on that window.
Similarly, I understand the Mac’s desire to get the user to accept its predefined preference for a window size, but sometimes I want to read a web page at something other than the Mac’s idea of the ‘’optimal’’ text-wrap width. Or I may want to watch a video at something other than the resolution defined for me as ideal. Windows lets me maximize those windows, and Mac doesn’t. I’m actually surprised this isn’t a bigger deal for the fanboys; Apple sells some huge high-res displays for a pretty penny and I wonder why the buyers don’t demand to be able to use that whole display automatically.
My bottom line is that Windows lets me use my computer as I want to, while Apple tells me to use my computer as they think best. As long as I’m given that option, I will continue to avoid Apple like the plague even if in some given situation their forced recommendation could be an improvement. I like to buy my computers, not rent them under a restrictive covenant.
I understand Fitt’s law, but I don’t do things by rote memory - I think about what action I need to take before I take it. Thus it is much more reasonable for me to interact with a given window by clicking a menu connected with that window than it is for me to take a time-out to think about which window I currently have highlighted and then click on the top of the screen, well away from the window, to act on that window.
No, unfortunately you don't, Turbopilot. Your own statement proves you don't. Rote memory has nothing to do with it. Being able to consistently and quickly hit a specified target without "rote" memory does. You don't have to memorize where the menu bar is... you can hit it every time even if you've never been to it before. I can hit the Mac menu bar and the dock with my eyes closed... every time. You cannot do that on Windows menu bars.
On Windows, no matter how many times you've been to the menu, you still have to adjust and re-adjust the position of your pointer to be sure you are on it... especially if you move it quickly. This has been studied to death... and trying to hit a menu in free floating window is not intuitive or easy to do... or as fast as hitting the infinitely tall menu bar at the edge of a screen. Trying to accurately hit a button or drop menu title on a free floating window menu requires the user to slow the mouse before reaching the window or making a series of small adjustments up and down to finally zero in on the location he needs. That interrupts the work flow.
Getting to a top screen menu bar is as easy as flipping the mouse toward it and then merely moving side to side to select the target menu... Hitting any corner is even easier and quicker. I use a track ball and I can merely spin the ball in the general direction of a corner and it will hit it every time.
As for figuring out which window will be affected by the menu bar at the top of the screen, you don't have to think about it... you are already WORKING in that window... just go to the menu bar and any action you take applies to the window you are currently working in.
Quit trying to make it harder than it is.
By-the-way, it isn't "Fitt's Law" - The guy who created it is named Paul Fitts, not Fitt.
Similarly, I understand the Mac’s desire to get the user to accept its predefined preference for a window size, but sometimes I want to read a web page at something other than the Mac’s idea of the ‘’optimal’’ text-wrap width
Excuse me but you are blathering nonsense. There is no "desire" about if from the Mac (or even the UI designers) ... the Mac merely opens the window to the size needed to view the material in its entirety or to the size of the screen, if the contents is too large to display. This approach avoids hiding other windows that may be necessary to the task at hand. The fact is that on most sites, text wrap width is set by the web page designer... not Apple. (FR is an exception, being primarily a text based service.) You can easily drag any Mac window to any size you desire. The maximize button on the Mac merely opens the page to the width needed to see the page completely. If you want it wider (with extra large white borders because the page is hard coded to that width), you can drag it further.
Or I may want to watch a video at something other than the resolution defined for me as ideal. Windows lets me maximize those windows, and Mac doesn’t.
You see: ignorance. That last sentence is just flat out wrong! Who told you that? You can watch a movie from any resolution in full screen... or any size at all. Sometimes I want to watch a video in a little tiny window in the corner of my screen... sometimes the subject matter is important enough or spectacular enough to watch watch it on the full extent of my 23 inch Cinema display... without borders. The Mac lets me decide... and I can do it at any size in between as well. Heck, with a Mac, I can hold down the Control Key and zoom into anything on the screen... so I can make a video that is playing on a website at a hard set size fill the entire screen if I want. That's really handy for some of those itty-bitty videos that play on some news sites.... or for looking at some tiny jpegs.
Do you really think that Macs would have been selected by the majority of graphic artists and video creators if they could not resize the windows they look at their creations on? Think again. They choose them because the can do that... and they choose Macs because they make them more productive... because of the incorporation of Fitts' Law into almost every aspect of the Mac's user interface.
Apple sells some huge high-res displays for a pretty penny and I wonder why the buyers don’t demand to be able to use that whole display automatically.
You want full screen? Simply click on view full screen... and even the borders go away.
I will continue to avoid Apple like the plague even if in some given situation their forced recommendation could be an improvement.
Your plague avoidance has left you completely ignorant of what Macs can and cannot do. Really, your telling Mac users such as myself and antirepublicrat (who also are fully conversant with all of MS Windows capabilities and failings - I make my income by working on Windows computers for quite a number of very satisfied client businesses) what a Mac can and cannot do is laughable... if it wasn't so sad. When you sit here and tell us that we cannot do things we are doing every day, you just display an your abysmal ignorance and lack of knowledge about the Mac and its use. Ignorance is curable, Turbo.