Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Moving a Textedit field in a modal dialog
Message-ID: <8376@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 24 Aug 89 01:12:15 GMT
References: <15088@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <21428@cup.portal.com> <58078@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <8356@hoptoad.uucp> <1341@speedy.mcnc.org>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 63

In article <8356@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>Yes, this is true, so long as you don't care about compatibility with old
>ROM machines.  Few people do these days....

In article <1341@speedy.mcnc.org> kk@mcnc.org.UUCP (Krzysztof Kozminski) writes:
>Don't system versions from 4.2 onward have patches for old ROMs? It seems to
>me that you'd have to come up with an (old ROM + ancient system) combination
>to have HideDItem/ShowDItem fail ... (disclaimer: I am not sure about this).

Yes, some, but I'm not sure exactly what traps and features are patched
in and which ones aren't.  Inside Mac doesn't bother to say.  I think one
Tech Note makes a passing reference to some new traps being patched in,
but I don't think it addresses HideDItem and ShowDItem specifically, and
I don't remember which one it is, and I don't have the time to search
through some 200 tech notes to find out.

>>And one subjective note -- I have some aesthetic qualms about dialogs
>>that change their appearance.  In a very few cases they make sense, and
>>for all I know this may be one of them.
>
>Seconded.  From user's point of view it is less confusing if a dialog item
>gets deactivated (drawn in gray pattern) rather than disappears altogether.
>It is easy to do with controls (hilite them with 255), somewhat more of
>a problem with text items (got to deactivate them so that clicks in the
>item are ignored, and overdraw with grey in Bic mode.

Deactivation is indeed a better solution, though it doesn't completely
address the problem of modality.  But at least it gives a clear visible
indication of the modal behavior.  With text edit items, you can always
disable them by turning them into user items with SetDItem and binding
a "draw light gray" drawing procedure, then doing an InvalRect on the
item's surrounding rectangle.  I don't think this causes any problems.

>I recall also some
>problems I had with tab key moving the insertion point into inactive text
>item - if this is indeed a problem and not my false recollection, it can be
>fixed with a dialog filter routine).

I just checked and at least under 6.0.3 on a Mac SE, the Dialog Manager
is smart enough to avoid this problem.  Tabs will only take you to
visible edit text fields.  This doesn't mean your memory is faulty --
perhaps this used to be a problem but it was fixed, in which case those
concerned about pre-6.0 systems would be well advised to do their own
testing.  (However, I think that as we approach 1990, it is reasonable
to require Mac Plus or later ROM, one megabyte or more of memory, and
System 6.0 or higher.)

>KK
>-- 
>"The party was a masquerade; the guests were all wearing their faces."

Camilla:  You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it's time.  We all have laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla:  (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.)  No mask?  No mask!

THE KING IN YELLOW: Act I -- Scene 2.  (Robert W. Chambers, 1895)
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Everything that gives us pleasure gives us pain to measure it by."
    -- The Residents, GOD IN THREE PERSONS