It's optional in apps? That's a bad thing, IMHO. Makes for inconsistency...
I was just using the GIMP on OSX yesterday. The palettes are actually fully fledged windows, and it does highlight tools if you move your mouse across the palette when it's in the background. Then you click, and the window gets focus... and then you have to click again to select the tool. Fucking nightmare.
There's actually a reason for making it optional, although most apps probably ought to make use of it. The only reason for not is if an accidental click would do something destructive in the app. File managers come to mind, for example, or the 'Cancel' button to end a CD-burning session. Those kinds of things aside, it definitely makes more sense to allow it all the time. As for the GIMP, that is a whole can of worms unto itself.
Seems like this should be a global option, or simply on by default. It should at least be on by default for the tracker. Clicking the close box and having the window focus isn't very friendly. Zeta doesn't do it that way. Does R5?
I don't think any "click-throughness" should be configurable by applications. That is guaranteed to give inconsistent behavior. This is the realm of the window manager (or app_server?)
If a window is so important that it's dangerous to close, the app should display a dialog box asking the user something like "Closing this window will terminate the running calculation, are you sure you want this?", just like for unsaved files.
The application can also decide that a window is not going to have a close button at all by using the B_NOT_CLOSABLE flag. The file operation progress window in Tracker does this.
Comments
Direct close
It's usually called 'click through'...
And yes!
Re: Direct close
Ever tried "Focus Follows Mouse" option ?
Direct close
This is something I'd too like to see; always have since I first used BeOS. None of the Mouse modes fulfill the void. :lol:
Direct close
Apps can "B_ACCEPT_FIRST_CLICK" if they want to, and I believe that will make it close on clicking the close button even if unfocused.
Direct close
B_WILL_ACCEPT_FIRST_CLICK only works for the controls, not the window decorator. I've used this feature under OS X -- it's a very nice thing to have.
Direct close
It's optional in apps? That's a bad thing, IMHO. Makes for inconsistency...
I was just using the GIMP on OSX yesterday. The palettes are actually fully fledged windows, and it does highlight tools if you move your mouse across the palette when it's in the background. Then you click, and the window gets focus... and then you have to click again to select the tool. Fucking nightmare.
Direct close
There's actually a reason for making it optional, although most apps probably ought to make use of it. The only reason for not is if an accidental click would do something destructive in the app. File managers come to mind, for example, or the 'Cancel' button to end a CD-burning session. Those kinds of things aside, it definitely makes more sense to allow it all the time. As for the GIMP, that is a whole can of worms unto itself.
Re: Direct close
Seems like this should be a global option, or simply on by default. It should at least be on by default for the tracker. Clicking the close box and having the window focus isn't very friendly. Zeta doesn't do it that way. Does R5?
Re: Direct close
I don't think any "click-throughness" should be configurable by applications. That is guaranteed to give inconsistent behavior. This is the realm of the window manager (or app_server?)
If a window is so important that it's dangerous to close, the app should display a dialog box asking the user something like "Closing this window will terminate the running calculation, are you sure you want this?", just like for unsaved files.
The application can also decide that a window is not going to have a close button at all by using the B_NOT_CLOSABLE flag. The file operation progress window in Tracker does this.
Re: Direct close
Very much agree (with all); we don't want inconsistent behaviour!