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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: DialogBoxes (was: Cookie window popup)
From:       John Summerfield <summer () OS2 ! ami ! com ! au>
Date:       2000-09-13 6:55:28
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> At 12:30 AM 9/13/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >> This isn't a fault of the modal dialog itself, but of poor design of the
> >> application. If a modal dialog needs to refer to a particular part of a
> >> document window (eg to report an error in Line 300), then the app should
> >> either duplicate this information in the dialog, or scroll to the
> >> correct line and position the dialog so it *doesn't* cover the
> >> information it refers to.
> >
> ><dense>
> >
> >What's a "modal dialog"?  
> 
> A dialog that blocks access to any other of a program 
> while it is visible. Useful in some cases (fatal erros etc)
> but can limit usability elsewhere.


Most times you should avoid coding one. A good example of a misuse is 
Kdevelop; it has a bug-reporting dialogue (a good idea) but it's modal; the 
result is one can't cut & paste from other Kdevelop windows.

It's sensible when the user can't proceed without dealing with it.


You do need to be careful not to show two modal dialogues: OS/2 has (had) a 
problem where a program could terminate with a error (such as the OS/2 
equivalent of a segv) and the window mananager throws up a system-modal 
dialogue.

If two programs die and much the same time, it could (and did) happen there 
were two of these dialogues, and the one on top was not the one with focus. 
It's hard to click a button that has something over it.

I rebooted on several occasions before I discovered I could dispose of them by 
acknowledging them with the space bar.

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