I'm currently using 1.42 Beta/3, but this issue has been around for ages
now (including many proper releases).
When I do Tools->Search... to find some messages, the search window
itself has a close box, a close button, a Message->Exit menu item, and
it also responds to the Escape key. The same is true of the Address
Book window. These windows don't really constitute dialogs (they are
major pieces of functionality in themselves, and are for the most part
usable alongside each other and the main window.)
This isn't so much of a problem with the address book (which also
contains a close box and File->Exit menu item), however the trapping
of Escape within the search window masks one other important piece of
functionality.
After performing a big search across the whole mailbase, which
returns a hundred or so messages, you can Alt-click on a column in the
index to drill down the search results, just as you can in the main
folder index. In the main folder index you can hit Escape to cancel
the drill-down and list all the messages again. This however cancels
the whole window. A real pain if the search took a long time.
I don't think Escape should cancel either window: there are other ways
to close both of them, and accidentally killing the window is too easy
when you're trying to cancel some other smaller mode (such as a
drill-down or properties dialog). As I said, these two at least
constitute such large pieces of functionality themselves that it
doesn't really make sense to consider them as separate sub-modes of
the main application, cancellable by the Escape key.
In addition, I find the File->Exit and Message->Exit menu items quite
scary: it's really not clear that they close only that window, and not
the whole application. They should probably be renamed to either
"Close" or "Close Window" to make it absolutely clear what they are
going to do.
(Many applications with separate top-level windows have two menu items
in the File menu: Close, which closes that single window, and Exit,
which closes all windows of that application.)
John
--
you gave me something that i could touch in a world where i'd had too much
something i could feel with my broken hands full of lost ideals but soon i'm
returning to you my friend and we'll go where the rivers end in the silver sea
and i'll carry you if you carry me
--
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