command-period - On third thought...

[J. Landman Gay]

Mark Wieder wrote:
> Timothy-
> 
> Monday, August 8, 2005, 10:12:01 AM, you wrote:
> 
> 
>>My issue is much simpler. If an answer dialog is waiting on the
>>screen, command-period, would, in a perfect world, exit to top. As 
>>far as I can tell, no keyboard entry will make that happen.
> 
> 
> I've lost the original context for this thread, so I may not know
> what's going on here, but that's never stopped me before...
> 
> Answer dialogs are modal. Typically a modal dialog means that all
> other action within an application is blocked until the dialog is
> dismissed. This is done by pressing one of the buttons on the modal
> dialog ("OK", "Cancel", etc) or by typing the keyboard equivalent of
> thos buttons (return, escape, etc). The addition of command-period
> would be an interesting addition to the operating system as a
> substitute for the escape key, but that would have to be done at the
> OS level rather than the application level. Otherwise you're talking
> about redefining what a "modal" dialog means, especially if you want
> to close the modal dialog and force an exit-to-top.
> 

Right. The reason it worked in HyperCard and can't work in Revolution, 
if I remember right, is because HyperCard didn't use system windows for 
modal dialogs; it put up its own. The so-called "modal" dialog in 
HyperCard was actually an application window that got treated in a 
special way and was therefore immune to OS behaviors.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com