Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bgsuvax!denbeste
From: denbeste@bgsuvax.UUCP (William C. DenBesten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Me vs the Layer Manager
Message-ID: <5525@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 9 Mar 90 22:49:03 GMT
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Lines: 31

I am writing an init that ocassionally displays a modal window
that needs to be seen (and acted upon) by the user.  Under Finder, I
patch an arcane-but-appropiate trap.  When it is called, I call
NewWindow(), and handle my own little modal environment until I
DisposWindow().  This works well.

When running under Multifinder, there is a small problem.  Sometimes
the arcane-but-appropiate trap gets called from an application that is
not in the frontmost layer.  When I create my window, it appears at
the front of its layer, but is obscured by other layers that are
further forward.

I need a method of convincing my window to comw up in front of all the
other layers.  Alternatively, I could swap layers momentarily or grab
the a5 for the front layer, but I don't know how to do either of
these.  The Programmer's Guide to Multifinder refers to the Layer Manager
as being responsible for handling this sort of thing. Unfortunately,
it also says that the layer manager is only called by the Window
Manager and I am not able to find documentation on the layer manager.

Using the notification manager won't work because I have an animate
display, need user response and can't let the macintosh continue until
I am done.

Any clues, guidelines or pointers would be appreciated.

-- 
          William C. DenBesten |        denbeste@bgsu.edu
      Dept of Computer Science | CSNET  denbeste%andy.bgsu.edu@relay.cs.net
Bowling Green State University | UUCP   ...!osu-cis!bgsuvax!denbeste
  Bowling Green, OH 43403-0214 | BITNET denbesten@bgsuopie.bitnet