nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) (04/06/89)
Just a quick observation. The finder allows Command/drag on inactive windows; they move around, but don't come to the front and don't become active. I recall this facility being in the interface guidelines, so conformant applications should do it as well, although I don't know how many do (MOTU's Performer doesn't, which is irritating me). So: why doesn't this paradigm extend to MultiFinder? If I'm running MacFoo in as the foreground application, shouldn't I be able to command/drag the finder windows around without otherwise waking the finder up? And the other way round, of course... Or is there something about "layers" which makes this undesirable or difficult to do? Nick. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ...while the builders of the cages sleep with bullets, bars and stone, they do not see your road to freedom that you build with flesh and bone.
mnkonar@gorby.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Murat N. Konar) (04/08/89)
In article <1706@etive.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes: >Just a quick observation. The finder allows Command/drag on inactive >windows; they move around, but don't come to the front and don't >become active. I recall this facility being in the interface >guidelines, so conformant applications should do it as well, although >I don't know how many do (MOTU's Performer doesn't, which is irritating >me). > So: why doesn't this paradigm extend to MultiFinder? If I'm running >MacFoo in as the foreground application, shouldn't I be able to command/drag >the finder windows around without otherwise waking the finder up? And the >other way round, of course... Or is there something about "layers" which >makes this undesirable or difficult to do? I think that the list of windows is maintained such that each applications windows are in a layer unique to that application. I.E. the linked list of windows is switched in and out with the application, so as far as the finder (or anyone else) is concerned, windows of an application in the background are non-existent. I agree that it would be nice if MF could do what you want it to. Maybe in the future. ____________________________________________________________________ Have a day. :^| Murat N. Konar Honeywell Systems & Research Center, Camden, MN mnkonar@SRC.honeywell.com (internet) {umn-cs,ems,bthpyd}!srcsip!mnkonar(UUCP)
mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) (04/09/89)
In article <1706@etive.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes: >Just a quick observation. The finder allows Command/drag on inactive >windows; they move around, but don't come to the front and don't >become active. ... [some stuff deleted] > So: why doesn't this paradigm extend to MultiFinder? If I'm running >MacFoo in as the foreground application, shouldn't I be able to command/drag >the finder windows around without otherwise waking the finder up? And the >other way round, of course... Or is there something about "layers" which >makes this undesirable or difficult to do? I doubt this would really be possible. MultiFinder would have to transfer control to the program that owns the window you're moving, at least long enough for it to update the window's contents, then yank control back, which would be quite impolite! :-) Seriously, this would certainly be a nice feature, but since window-dragging is handled by the individual programs, it would probably be very, very tough. -- Mark H. Anbinder ** MHA@TCGould.tn.cornell.edu NG33 MVR Hall, Media Services Dept. ** THCY@CRNLVAX5.BITNET Cornell University H: (607) 257-7587 ******** Ithaca, NY 14853 W: (607) 255-1566 ******* Ego ipse custodies custudio