[...] As a developer, especially as a Mac developer, I find option 2 wholly unacceptable. That option makes the usability of the system as a whole degrade, because the interface behaviors do not scale beyond a subset of applications I might have installed on my system.
It is because of this conclusion (namely, that reimplementing OS-provided behaviors leads to an overall degradation in the usability of the system as a whole) that I find this option unacceptable.
Couldn't agree more! That's why I invented surfaces (http://www.torjo.com/win32gui/surfaces.html) -- so that you can customize the UI, while *maintaining* the behaviour of the underlying OS Best, John -- John Torjo, Contributing editor, C/C++ Users Journal -- "Win32 GUI Generics" -- generics & GUI do mix, after all -- http://www.torjo.com/win32gui/surfaces.html - Sky's the limit! -- http://www.torjo.com/cb/ - Click, Build, Run!