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| Date: | 1994-02-26 | ||
| From: | Paul | ||
| Subject: | Re: Continuing Progress |
Curious about details on implementing the palette properly, I did a little research over the last few days. First, terminology: it appears that "Utility Window" is a more proper term, although even "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines" (HIN) is a little ambiguous about this. Here's the meat of what they say:
A utility window is a small accessory window that provides additional tools or controls to users. A tool palette or a set of text attributes could be implemented in a utility window. Utility windows float on top of document windows... Most utility windows don't have titles. The standard drag region at the top of utility windows is 11 pixels high... Fill the title bar with a 25 percent pattern. Don't use racing stripes in a utility window title bar...
The surprise is that the Toolbox does not implement utility windows. A text utility window is available through "Packages", but this appears to be a poor or unacceptable way to go. So how do I get a true utility window? It appears that I may have to implement custom code. The Toolbox supports the creation of custom window types, so I hope this will be not much more than a minor nuisance. With your concurrence, I will back-burner this for the time being. I *will* look into fixing the window behavior, so it always stays in front.
On a similar vein, I've been researching the elusive default button (remember this problem?). HIN again does a good job of defining it, but offers no implementation assistance. Still, there's a chance I will lick this minor problem this weekend.
What's next? I haven't decided. Maybe a look at clumps in the world generation, maybe work on scrolling and resizing the Battle Window.
As for the ongoing debate on containment: I confess that my arguments have been weak. I am not abandoning my position; however, I am going to table the discussion for a few days.
How are the piece descriptions coming?
Duk