On 7 Mar 2011, at 13:45, Graham Cox wrote: >> I have another UI type question where I am not sure how best to achieve what >> I want. I have a (non-modal) window in which the user interacts with >> external peripherals. Under certain circumstances (such as the peripheral >> not being turned on) it is not possible to send commands to the device. I >> thought that a window-modal sheet might be a neat way of representing that: >> www.dur.ac.uk/j.m.taylor/sheet.png >> >> However, this sort of use of a sheet, window-modal in the sense that it >> prevents interaction with that window, but non-showstopping in the sense >> that it shouldn't prevent closing the parent window or quitting, seems to be >> hard. I have found some mention of these issues in the archives and >> elsewhere, and as far as I can tell: >> - sheets are not really designed to work this way >> - it is possible to allow quitting, for example manually closing the sheets >> from within -terminate. >> - it seems to be impossible to keep the close buttons enabled on the >> underlying window (apparently "the underlying window is no longer first >> responder"... although true, that in itself should not preclude the close >> button from working unless I'm missing something). >> >> So - is there any way of keeping the close button operational, and/or can >> anybody suggest a more appropriate way of achieving the sort of interface >> effect I'm after here? I thought the sheet mechanism was a rather apt way of >> doing what I want, but it is evidently not a use that has been foreseen in >> the design... > > > I'd say you're trying to fit a round peg in a square hole, and attempting to > subvert the sheet behaviour isn't going to be fruitful for you or your users. It seems that's the case, though I felt this was *exactly* what a sheet should be for ("there is a problem that needs to be rectified before you can interact further with this window" - it's just that in this case no harm will come from choosing to ignore the problem by closing the window).
> Instead why not open a hidden section in the window itself that displays the > operational aspects of what's happening - or why even make it hidden? - so > you have your input parameters in the upper section and the operational > 'results' (perhaps including the progress bar, cancel button, error or > progress message, and what-have-you) in the lower section. K.I.S.S. Looks like I will probably end up doing that..._______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com