Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!midway!daisy!francis
From: francis@daisy.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: HIGs, Modal Dialogs and Command Key equivalences
Keywords: interface,modal editing
Message-ID: <1990Oct15.154801.12596@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 15 Oct 90 15:48:01 GMT
References: <1990Oct12.114610.2427@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago
Lines: 36

In article <1990Oct12.114610.2427@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au> b_murphy@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au writes:
>If a modal dialog is on the screen, what do you do with CUT/COPY/PASTE? I
>have seen many implementations where the menu doesn't work, but the command
>keys do. Also I've seen help-screens appear while a modal dialog was up.
It seems to be a bit difficult to get the command keys to work in
a modal dialog; you need a filterproc, of course, but I haven't been
able to make that work, either.  (To be fair, I haven't tried very
hard--but the filter never saw those command-keys.)

>Idea: Grey the whole menu bar *execpt* 'EDIT' and maybe the help item
>      where ever it is.
Seems a bit involved.  Seeing a modal should be clear enough.  Besides,
  then you'd have to get the system to let the user click on the edit
  menu, even with the modal up.

>OR:   Do not allow CUT/COPY/PASTE and supply the user with <CR> and <TAB>
>      equivalences.
These are not the only uses for cutting/etc.

>OR:   (This is really snazzy ;-) Supply the user with either buttons
>      in the dialog that do CUT/COPY/PASTE, or a menu in the dialog.
This is NOT snazzy.  Snazzy is doing it the same way people are used
  to outside the dialog--i.e., with command-keys.  Making me drag the
  mouse around to do such a simple operation (especially one for which
  I ALWAYS use command-keys) is not friendly.

>While I'm at it, is there anyone *outside* Australia actually *READING*
>this, 'cuz I got the distinct impression we were on our lonesome here.

We're here; you may not see us, because most newsposters default the
distribution area to "usa" (most here, anyway).  I set the distribution
on this one to "world"--hope that does it.
| Francis Stracke		| My opinions are my own.  I don't steal them.|
| Department of Mathematics	|=============================================|
| University of Chicago		| A mathematician is a professional	      |
| francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu	|   schizophrenic.--Me.		       	      |