Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/15/2002 - 20:52. Developers
How do youprevent a dialog from begin lowered? The Edit->Find dialog in the HP text editor never gets lowered. It just changes focus as other options are selected. You can even edit in the window while the Find dialog is still visible. This is not the same as keeping a dialog
"Always on Top", which should clearly be avoided. How do they do that?
Tue, 07/03/2012 - 15:23
#1
How to stop a dialog from being lowered
"Always on Top" should be avoided for the screen as a whole when all applications are considered.
"Always on Top" can also be considered just for the set of windows in an application.
In fact, "Always on Top" is what mwm does -- it puts the dialog in the fore-front of its parent. Generally, you`ll need the cooperation of the window manager to enforce any sort of stacking order for dialogs -- which really means that the stacking order for dialogs is subject to the whims of the window manager and its stacking policies.
I`m not sure what you mean by "focus" -- keyboard focus? In any case, the situation you describe could be handled by mwm provided that the secondary dialog is parented by the other dialog, such that it remains in the forefront of that other dialog.
For clues as to what is happening, use the "xprop" application on the windows and look for the TRANSIENT_FOR and WINDOW_GROUP properties on the dialogs and on the main windows; you can also use "xwininfo" to get the window IDs so that you can figure out which windows the properties are referring to.
Here is a more detailed description of the behavior I need to emulate. Open the text editor. The text editor is displayed as a main window. Select Find from the Edit menu. A dialog is displayed, whith the title bar and window frame of the dialog active. Next, select another menu option, Options->Status Line. The Find dialog will now go `inactive` but will remain "on top" of the main window. The Status Line reqeust is processed and the dialog stays inactive until it is selected with a mouse click. This Find dialog is a dialog that never gets "lowered". It only toggles between active and inactive. Can I control duplicate this behavior programattically or with resources?
I believe that this is exactly what mwm does by default.
I believe that this is exactly what mwm does by default.