RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Pop-up slider - more

["Charles Moir" <CharlesM@xxxxxxxx>]

> The click is lost by every popup menu I know of. For example 
> select the file menu, get the long list of menu items and 
> click on some tool far right on the toolbars - the click is 
> consumed for the popup dismissing, and the tool action isn't 
> performed.

Seriously?  I'm stunned. And that's certainly not how menus Windows
works. More specifically it's not how pop-up sliders work on Adobe,
Corel, or Macromedia software.

I can't see how that could work in practice. Say you have a pop-up
alert, or a gauge or dial (e.g. pop-up volume control) that means you'd
have to click twice to do anything, first to make the pop-up go, second
to do what you wanted to do in the first place. Worse it breaks a
fundamental tenet of good UI design, which is to do what you know the
user intends. So say I have my transient pop-up and the user now goes
clicks on a tool or another window - nothing would happen. But it's
obvious what the user intent really is i.e. select that tool or top the
window.  The computer should always do what you know the user intends.

So losing the click would surely result in a user pulling his hair out
wondering why things aren't working.

I'm not in front of a Linux machine right now, but they have pop-up
volume control from the task bar (panel). So I click to pop this up, I
can adjust the value (and the pop-up does not go away, so I can adjust
it some more). But if I now click another window or just click in this
text to do some typing that works as I'd expect. Does that not work on
Linux?

> There are several reasons for this, both technical and usability.
> 
> For example, if I can't click controls that are below the 
> popup (e.g., a big menu popup), why am I able to click others?

Don't understand that point. Controls below the pop-up are hidden by the
pop-up aren't they?

> If the popup allows other controls to work with the mouse, 
> how can it be sure that some other control doesn't grab 
> complete control of the mouse if the popup itself doesn't do it?

Don't understand that one either. Only the control under the mouse would
be affected by the mouse. Any click outside of the transient pop-up is
treated exactly as that click would be normally were the pop-up not
there (because they have clicked away from the pop-up, so the events are
nothing to do with this pop-up anymore).

> > Can you do the revert back to the hide-after-the-drag as it was 
> > originally? I think Alex is not around tomorrow.
> 
> Don't have access personally.
OK no worry. Someone here can revert the change I'm sure.

Charles