Answer Dialog at ScreenLoc?

[Richard Gaskin]

Wilhelm Sanke wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 , Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com> wrote:
>> Aside from modifying its code, is there a trick to forcing the answer 
>> dialog to appear at the screenLoc?
> 
> Naturally, this is a reappearing topic.

There is a request for options to position Ask and Answer:
<http://support.runrev.com/bugdatabase/show_bug.cgi?id=833>

For MC, I have a proposal for the default positions:

There are two main uses for dialogs, things that describe the 
application as a whole and things that are document-specific.

The current design of the dialogs attempts to provide document-specific 
behaviors as appropriate for Windows.  Since Windows has interleaved 
windows, positioning the dialog centered on that window helps the user 
identify which window the message relates to.

In Mac Classic windows were not interleaved, so one could safely 
position dialogs in a central place and it was understood they apply to 
whatever window is topmost.

In OS X we now have sheets to distinguish document-specific dialogs, so 
we're good there.

I propose that we make the default position of the Ask and Answer 
dialogs for non-sheet use like this:

- Windows: horizontally-centered over the topmost window, and two-fifths 
of the vertical height of the window.

- OS X: horizontally-centered in the monitor, and one-fifth of the 
vertical height of the monitor.


What's up with the fifths?

Neither HIG specifies exactly where modal dialogs should be placed 
(please pass me the URL if you find that -- I've come up empty).  The 
closest thing we have is the Mac Classic HIG comment on modal dialog 
placement:
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-117.html#HEADING117-22>

So this proposal adheres to Apple's last published stance on 
application-wide modal dialogs, and for Windows it nudges them up a bit 
from vertical center to bring them a but closer to the title area of the 
topmost window. Admittedly the amount for Win is arbitrary, but seems 
better than vertically-centered.

Of course none of this addresses the case where one might want to 
position dialogs at the true screenloc or other arbitrary position, and 
we can consider Wilhelm's proposal for that until Rev enhances the 
engine to do it natively.

But for default positioning, whaddya' think?

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
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