Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!alexr@apple.com
From: alexr@apple.com (Alexander M. Rosenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Excel 3.0 and the WindowList
Message-ID: <13897@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 91 16:38:17 GMT
References: <13648@goofy.Apple.COM> <1991May29.162514.20304@mmm.serc.3m.com> <13744@goofy.Apple.COM> <72724@microsoft.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Hackers Anonymous
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In article <72724@microsoft.UUCP>, benw@microsoft.UUCP (Ben WALDMAN) writes:
> 
> In article <13744@goofy.Apple.COM> alexr@apple.com (Alexander M. Rosenberg) writes:
> >
> >I'm trying to do something similar to what "PopWMenu" does (programatically).
> >
> >However, "goofy stuff" isn't an acceptable result of user actions in this
> >case. The 'phantom' windows found in Excel can be filtered out because they
> >have no title. (Only real strings belong in a text list anyway.) My problem
> >is that the "regular" windows in Excel aren't "regular" at all. Calling
> >_SelectWindow on them screws things all up (read: Bus Error). "PopWMenu" and
> >other similar things just call _SelectWindow, as I would have liked to do.
> >
> >Anybody from Microsoft who would care to explain their "windows" to me?
> 
> There's nothing unusual about the regular Excel windows.  The "weirdness"
> that is going on here is that we maintain the several floating windows
> by using SendBehind rather than SelectWindow (that is, to bring a window
> to the front, it is sent behind the rear-most floating window).  If you
> do this, your program should work (there are 4 floating windows).  Also,
> I'm not sure that it's a good idea to check for title strings, since the
> frontmost floating window will get a title when printing, in order to get
> this name to appear in various print manager dialogs.

Inside Mac I-286 "Warning: Do not use SendBehind to deactivate a previously
active window. Calling SelectWindow to make a window active takes care of
deactivating the previously active window."

Sounds to me like this means that you should use SelectWindow and find some
other way of maintaining floating windows.

As far as I can tell, every app that does floating windows does it in a
different way. Maybe the world needs a tech note on suggested methods of
making floating windows.

> 
> Ben Waldman
> Excel Development Team
> Microsoft
> 
> 
> Disclaimer:  These are my own thoughts, opinions, and ideas, and in no
> way reflect those of my employer.
> 

I very much appreciate somebody from Microsoft answering my question. NetNews
is probably the only place where this can happen. (For any major software
company.)
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