Re: inappropriate tool palette activation problem
Re: inappropriate tool palette activation problem
- Subject: Re: inappropriate tool palette activation problem
- From: John Richetta <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:45:26 -0700
I said:
The problem is that my application's tool palettes seem to misbehave
quite a bit, with respect to window activation.
Generally, all windows - *including tool palettes* as well as main
document windows - require a click to activate them. This, in spite
of the documentation stating that utility panels stay in their own
layer.
On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:30:11 -0700, Scott Stevenson said:
I think part of the problem might be the terminology.
Rather than focusing on the label of "active," can you describe what
sort of behavior you're looking for from the window? There are
plenty of inspectors in Mac apps, which are essentially just "panel"
windows. How does that differ from what you need?
Sorry: I tried to keep it short, and omitted important detail.
The meaning of the term "active" is important in my case, and applied
to a window means: frontmost in its layer, responding to events, and
having a highlighted title bar.
Here is a sequence that should illustrate the problem (assuming an
already-open and active document window):
1. click in the active document, selecting object A for editing;
object A selects, as expected
2. click in tool palette window in a text field or slider, to
modify object A; instead of tool palette widget responding, tool
palette window activates, and main document deactivates; click is
consumed simply in activating the tool palette window
3. click in tool palette window again, to modify object A using widget
4. click back in document window, on object B, to select object;
document window *reactivates* and tool window deactivates; object B
does not yet get selected, because click is consumed simply in
activating the window
5. click on object B, for editing; object B selects correctly
6. click in a tool palette window widget, to modify part B; again,
main document window deactivates, and tool palette window activates;
widget does not yet respond, because click is again consumed simply
in activating the toll palette window
7. click in tool palette window again, to modify object B
Steps 2, 4, and 6 illustrate the incorrect behavior: a click should
not be required to activate either the tool palette or main document
windows. The main document window should stay active (until another
different document window becomes active), and the tool palette
window should always be active. That a click is required implies
that the tool palette and document window reside in the same layers,
when they should remain in separate layers.
The extra click required to activate the windows is extremely
annoying, UI-wise, and defeats the value of an inspector. And it's
completely different from the behavior exhibited by all normal tool
palettes, inspectors, font panels, etc.
Thanks for reading, and any further suggestions.
-jar
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