Re: Option-click on my app hides the other app
Re: Option-click on my app hides the other app
- Subject: Re: Option-click on my app hides the other app
- From: Ben Haller <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:21:01 -0700
If app A is active, and the user option-clicks on a window
belonging to app B, not only does app B come active as usual, app
A also hides. This is apparently intentional and documented
behavior, although I was unaware of it until today. Wacky.
--- Not sure why you call it "wacky" - it's been there for some
time. It's in the Shortcuts for Windows section of Mac Help.
Doesn't make it less wacky. :-> I meant no offense by the
epithet, and I'm sure there is no end of documentation I ought to
have read about it; it's just a behavior that I have never heard of
before that struck me as... wacky. I personally find it a little
hard to imagine a scenario in which I would utilize this feature, but
I'm sure it is terribly useful for some people.
The problem: Unfortunately, I want to use option-clicks in my
app, and I want to take clicks even when I'm not active (my window
is floating and usable even when my app is not the active app).
So this behavior gets in the way; the user just wants to option-
click in my window, and the option-click hides the active app,
which was not their intention.
Any way to turn off this facility?
--- You want to turn off a documented system-wide way of doing
things, so that your app will work the way you want?
Not a good idea, IMO. People get used to doing things with certain
combinations, even if you don't know about them. If your app
doesn't do that, and everybody else's does, then whose app is
busted? Yours.
My reason for wanting to do this is the same reason as the last
three people who asked the same question: the window being clicked on
in my app is a floating window that feels global, conceptually above
the "active app" paradigm. Most of the time when my app is being
actively used by the user it is not actually the active app. The UI
in question feels a lot like a Dock icon or a menu bar status item,
both of which, I would note, do not cause the active app to hide when
they are option-clicked. So unless I have to just completely swear
off using option-clicks in my app, which seems silly, I need a fix
for this.
I can assure you that users will not want the standard option-
click behavior when using my app. In fact, it has already been
reported to me as a bug, which is what prompted the inquiry in the
first place. It makes no more sense with my app than it would with
the Dock.
So, now that I have explained the scenario more fully... does
anybody know how to fix the problem?
Ben Haller
Stick Software
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