Re: Popupable

On Fri, Jun 06, 2003 at 10:50:10AM -0000, Charles Goodwin wrote:

> Whilst it was largely considered that combo was similar to drop down in
> more ways than one, there are a number of very subtle differences that
> warrant them being different widgets.
> 
> * dropdown has editable text, combo does not
> * dropdown's edit field is not part of the selection list, combo's is (see
> following ascii art)
> 
> dropdown:
> 
> .---------.-.
> |_________|v| << edit box with arrow
> |abc    |^|-'    selected item a separate field
> |def    | |
> |xyz    |v|
> '-------'-'
> 
> combo:
> 
> .---------.
> |abc    |^|_
> |def    | |v|<< selected item centered
> |xyz    |v|-'   selected item not separate field
> '-------'-'
> 
> A combo box is, if you like, a substitute for a set of radio buttons where
> you might not have the space or want to use the space taken up by radio
> buttons.
> 

Err... I figured that the terminology was:

* Dropdown [list]: shows the selection and presents a scrollable list of
  option when the arrow is clicked. In essence, as you noted (for combo)

* Combo [box]: is a combination of an edit field and a dropdown list

> Having just written all this, I had forgotten where I just saw said combo
> box.  I can't actually find it now, with all the combo boxen I'm
> encountering being non-editable dropdowns (just like the java swing API
> has them).  So I might leave combo for a while.

Something like the Mozilla location/history widget?

Emile