pop-up

Generic Function

Package: common-graphics

Arguments: window

Returns the pop-up property of a window. If pop-up is true, it indicates that the window is intended for use as a modal window.

Passing the :pop-up argument to make-window as true (or toggling the pop-up property of a form window to true in the inspector) causes certain other properties to be coerced to values that are typical for modal windows, ignoring any other values that might be passed explicitly to make-window. Specifically, child-p is coerced to nil so that the window is always a top-level window, the initial state will be :shrunk so that the window is not seen until it is invoked by calling pop-up-modal-dialog (typically), minimize-button is coerced to nil since it is not appropriate to shrink a window that demands immediate attention, maximize-button is coerced to nil to prevent the minimize button from appearing at all (it would be present in a grayed out stayed if the maximize-button were turned on) and because modal windows typically are not designed to be maximized, and scrollbars is coerced to nil because modal windows conventionally do not scroll.

A modal window does not need to use the pop-up property; it is basically a shortcut that can be used in place of remembering to specify various property values that are typical for modal windows. If one or more of the coerced values is not appropriate for a given modal window, then the window can be created without specifying pop-up as true.

NOTE: child-p must be nil for modal windows! In the previous paragraph, we said that a modal window need not have pop-up set to true, because pop-up is a shortcut to specifying other property values. However, if you do create a window to be invoked with pop-up-modal-dialog and do not specify the :pop-up initarg to make-window as true (or set the pop-up property to true), then be sure to at least specify the child-p initarg or the child-p property as nil (which would have been coerced had pop-up been true). child-p defaults to true, and pop-up-modal-dialog does not work on child windows.

The pop-up property may not be changed on an existing window, and must instead be specified with the :pop-up initarg of make-window. (It can be changed using the inspector when designing a form but not for a running window, either in the IDE or in an application.)

Note: incompatible change in release 6.0: The default value of the pop-up property is nil for all windows. In earlier releases, pop-up defaulted to t when the value of the :widgets initarg to make-window was true, since such windows are often used as modal dialogs. This exception was deemed more confusing than useful, and has been removed.

pop-up is a property of the form class. See About child, parent, and owner windows in cgide.htm.

Common Graphics and IDE documentation is described in About Common Graphics and IDE documentation in cgide.htm.

The documentation is described in introduction.htm and the index is in index.htm.

Created 2000.10.5.