Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: When to use a _real_ moda
Message-ID: <10853@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 19 Mar 90 09:27:38 GMT
References: <38.26037AF7@imagery.FIDONET.ORG>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 43

In article <38.26037AF7@imagery.FIDONET.ORG>
Jim.Spencer@p5.f22.n282.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Spencer) writes:
> >>You use type (b) Modal dialogs all the time.  For a couple of trivial
> >>examples, take a look at your page setup and print dialogs in any
> >>application.

> >BUT!  I consider the current way that page setup and print dialogs are
> >handled BAD interface design.  Why, fer gossake, should a page setup or
> >print dialog be modal?  Give me ONE reason!

>Generally I agree with you completely, particularly for dialogs like
>the page set up.  I am less sure for the print dialog.  It is not
>presented until you have asked for a print (a non-modal request).  For
>the print to proceed, certain information is necessary.  For the
>application to process the print request, it either must ask for this
>information modally or assume that values established previously are
>still valid.  I'm having trouble picturing how a non-modal dialog
>presented when the "Print" menu choice is selected would work.
>Similarly, file dialogs which are only presented after you have asked
>the application to do something which requires this information.  My
>point is that there are times when going modal makes sense.

First, put carriage returns at the end of your lines.  If your sysop
doesn't provide a text editor that works with USENET groups in a
friendly way, then USENET groups should not be available from your
sysop's machine.

As for modal dialogs, I don't understand your imaginative difficulties.
A modeless dialog can configure a modal operation perfectly well.  The
dialog comes up, but the operation doesn't happen until you click the
equivalent of the OK button.  If you give the same command again (e.g.,
Print or Open) before clicking OK or getting rid of the window, then
the window simply comes to the front.  This would work perfectly well
for both the Print dialogs and the Standard File dialogs, if the people
who wrote those parts of the OS had taken Apple's guidelines about
modelessness seriously.  As it is, though, it almost can't be done.
(It can, but it's a major pain and may not be future-compatible.)
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Satanic is merely the name they give to the behavior of those who would
 disrupt the orderly way in which men want to live."
    -- Gabrielle, THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, Anne Rice