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From: andyp@gvgpvd.GVG.TEK.COM (Andy Peterman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Modeless Dialogs
Keywords: help dialog
Message-ID: <1516@gvgpvd.GVG.TEK.COM>
Date: 28 Mar 90 18:53:52 GMT
References: <3005@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca>
Reply-To: andyp@gvgpvd.GVG.TEK.COM (Andy Peterman)
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Inc.; PVD
Lines: 21

In article <3005@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> juana@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca (Juana Chang) writes:
>I was wondering if there exists any more information about modeless dialogs
>besides the chapter on the dialog manager in IM-1??  Preferably an
>example!!
>
>The dialog I'm trying to achieve will consist of a user item and lots of
>buttons.  It's basically a control panel for an air traffic control
>simulation, the user item will be filled with an aircraft schedule and the
>buttons will be controls for altitude and heading of an aircraft.

It sounds like you should not bother using a dialog and just use a
normal window.  There's a Tech Note (#203 - Don't Abuse the Managers)
that says just that and I'm slowly starting to believe them.  By the
time you've written a filter for a modeless dialog (if you don't think
you need one, just wait) and dealt with the hassles of the user items,
you'll find that simply putting controls in a normal window isn't much
more difficult and gives you much more flexibility.  (Check out the
Control Manager - it does much of what the Dialog Manager does anyway).
In a modeless dialog, you have to deal with events too.

	Andy Peterman