Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!uswnvg!dmbeal
From: dmbeal@uswnvg.UUCP (Dave Beal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.motif
Subject: Botton events in motif 1.0
Keywords: buttons, motif, events
Message-ID: <806@uswnvg.UUCP>
Date: 13 May 91 15:23:36 GMT
Organization: US West NewVector, Bellevue, Wash.
Lines: 46


We are developing an application which involves having the user select
one or more messages from a list of messages with button 1.  When the user
selects the messages, a popup menu appears with a menu of choices for the
user to select from, each of which involves performing some action on the
selected messages.

We use a homebrew widget for the list of messages and can recognize a button 1
press and release.  We manually manage (popup) the popup menu.  Unfortunately,
Motif calls for the default button on a popup to be button 3.  We would
like to use button 1 to limit the confusion factor for the poor user.

Unfortunately, when we set the XmNwhichButton (apparently this becomes
XmNmenuPost in motif 1.1) to switch the button, motif takes over complete
control of button 1 and our homebrew widget never sees a button 1
press/release.

We have come up with a work-around which involves using XtAddEventHandler
to add event handlers for each pushbutton on the popup menu and not using the
XmNwhichButton resource on the popup menu.  In the event handler routine,
we ignore all buttons except for button 1.

It works the problem except
that the only way to get the menu to pop down without making a selection
is to move the pointer off the menu and hit button 3 (remember, we didn't
change the default).  Moving off the menu and pressing button 1 won't
work the problem.  You wouldn't expect it to because we just added
event handlers to the pushbuttons in the menu.  A button event in la-la
land is never going to be seen by our event handler...only by the popup
menu handler which only sees button 3.

The question is, is there any way to make a popup menu use button 1
without taking over total control of button 1 when the menu is not popped up
so that we can still use it in our homebrew widget?  

Or perhaps, is there another way of accomplishing the same
thing using a different motif widget?  Using button 3 in the popup is not 
really a viable option for us.  Even with putting a "Use button 3" label
at the top the popup it is confusing to the user.  Also, not all mice have
three buttons.


Dave Beal 
U S WEST NewVector
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