Help message Broadcasting system

[J. Landman Gay]

Kay C Lan wrote:
> is it really the case that you can move the
> mouse fast, but stop it in an object and not have the mouseEnter
> message sent?

It used to be, some years ago when I was first grappling with it. I was 
able to get the mouse into an object rect without the engine noticing. 
It probably makes a difference if you have other processing going on at 
the same time too (like "send in time" messaging that calls long 
handlers.) Actually, that was one reason I changed over to mousemove in 
another app. I originally started with mouseEnter but it wasn't working 
consistently, maybe because I had other long handlers completing at the 
same time. Things have probably improved by now but I've stuck with my 
mousemove approach because it's an easy one-liner, reliable, and doesn't 
seem to interfere with anything.

I do use mouseEnter too, it depends on the situation (and it's probably 
just a matter of personal preference which you choose anyway.) Your 
point about only triggering one entry point is valid. There are lots of 
situations where that's preferable.

> I've extensively used mouseEnter for pop-up text activation and have
> never noticed it didn't work. Isn't this what the Engine uses for
> ToolTips?

It does usually work, so people shouldn't get the idea that it's 
error-riddled or anything -- and I think the engine does use it for 
tooltips. But I have occasionally seen tooltips missed too.

> 
> Obviously this isn't extensive testing, but if people are experiencing
> mouseEnter messages not being sent, isn't this an Engine problem that
> should be sent the QCC?

It would be if I were more sure it was Rev's fault. I see tooltip 
failures in other apps routinely (maybe this is only an OS X problem; 
that's what I mostly use.) Photoshop Elements is terrible about it, 
sometimes missing up to half of them. So I'm not convinced it's Rev, it 
seems to be everywhere on my machine. I wonder if it's OS-related. Or 
maybe it's all the stuff I run in the background all the time.

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