Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!lotus!lotus.com!robertk
From: robertk@lotatg.lotus.com (Robert Krajewski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Dialog Modality
Message-ID: <ROBERTK.91Apr2125055@lotatg.lotus.com>
Date: 2 Apr 91 17:50:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: lotatg.ROBERTK.91Apr2125055
References: <1991Mar21.095051.29206@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <593@genco.bungi.com>
	<1991Mar27.121607.9672@maths.tcd.ie>
Sender: news@lotus.com
Organization: /homes/robertk/.organization
Lines: 18
In-Reply-To: gwills@maths.tcd.ie's message of 27 Mar 91 12:16:07 GMT

In article <1991Mar27.121607.9672@maths.tcd.ie> gwills@maths.tcd.ie (Graham Wills) writes:

   A modal dialog is exactly
   what it says it is. Modal. It stops everything. If you don't want to stop
   everything, DON'T USE MODAL DIALOGS.

Well, that's not entirely fair -- would it really make sense for a
standard file dialog to *not* be modal ?

Windows dialog boxes have three levels of modality: none, application,
or system. Most modal boxes are application-modal so that you can
switch to other tasks -- especially useful when searching for a file,
for example. System-modal dialogs are reserved for very serious
situations, like a network failure notification. Anyway, on the Mac, I
find it a real pain that I can't pull down any DAs in a modal dialog.
This lossage is basically due to the fact that Multifinder is
relatively new to the Mac. I hope system 7 offers something like
application modal dialogs.