Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!ucsd!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: When to use a _real_ moda
Message-ID: <10879@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 21 Mar 90 16:47:57 GMT
References: <38.26037AF7@imagery.FIDONET.ORG> <10853@hoptoad.uucp> <18601@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 44

In article <10853@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>>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

In article <18601@boulder.Colorado.EDU> pratt@boulder.Colorado.EDU
(Jonathan Pratt) writes:
>OK, explain this further.

Isn't there a word missing here?  What your mother used to call "the
magic word"?

>Suppose you bring the modeless print dialog
>in front of a window that that can't be printed.  Do you dim the OK
>button?  Does this kind of modelessness really help the user, or does
>it simply clutter the desktop?  Would it be clear to most users that
>the modeless print window operates on the next window down?

It would be a big mistake to use this kind of functionality; the idea
of printing the next window down would be anything but clear to the
user.  The best solution is to make the print dialog a
multiply-instantiated floating sub-window locked to its particular
window, which *would* be pretty clear, but the MacOS makes this quite
difficult.

The second best solution is that the print dialog contain the name of
the window it is set up to print, prominently displayed in the print
dialog window title.  If you choose Print again, then the print dialog
comes to the front again, but with the name of the window that was
frontmost when you gave the new command.  Or, simply disable the print
command while the print dialog is visible (an inferior solution).  Or,
have a button in the print dialog that allows the window associated
with it to be changed.

>No flames please, just discussion.

Does this inflammatory comment serve some purpose?
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

A good flame strengthens its points; it does not stand in lieu of them.