----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Way <dway at mat.net>
To: <shaping at bigfoot.com>
Cc: <squeak at cs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 1999 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: Achieving escape velocity


>
> So many questions!  There probably aren't good answers to all of your
> questions, but here are a few, anyway...
>
> On Sun, 11 Apr 1999 shaping at bigfoot.com wrote:
>
> > Has anyone considered making the window's maximize and close controls
> change
> > their visual condition as the mouse passes over them, to indicate when
> the
> > mouse click will work?   Can I close a window with a command key?  This
> > would be useful (I keep hitting the Alt-F4 :-) ).
>
> You can't close a window with a command key currently.  You could probably
> do this with a little Morphic programming by having SystemWindow check for
> a specific #keyStroke event of your choice.  (I haven't tried this
> myself.)

I'll check and let you know.

>
> Customizing it so that the Morphic titlebar controls change as the mouse
> passes over is probably easier... add a line to SystemWindow>>initialize
> like "closeBox on: #mouseEnter send: #highlightCloseBox: to: self.", and
> then create SystemWindow>>highlightCloseBox: which does something like
> "closeBox color: Color blue." to highlight it, etc.

Sounds like that'll do it.

>
> > Does everyone agree that those little circles that appear at window
> borders
> > to indicate that you can now resize the window (if you are agile enough)
> are
> > very difficult to use?  Am I missing something?  Sometimes, I need
> twenty to
> > thirty seconds to get a grip on my window border.  I'm working at 1280 x
> > 1024.
>
> Aside from the resizing thing, I generally like working in Morphic more
> than MVC, though.
>
I'm used to using a strict Domain Adaptor Architecture (like that described
in Tim Howard's VisualWorks book).  Is there something comparable or better
in Squeak.  If I start using MVC while I'm playing with Morphic, will I
eventually become disgusted with MVC and abandon it?  Tell me now; save me
some time.   Or, do I still get sufficiently greater performance from MVC to
warrant the slower code production (behavior production) rates?


> > I filed-in the Windoze 2-1-1 stuff, but it affected window attributes in
> > only one of my projects (the one with the introductory materials and
> > examples) and not windows in the Morphic projects.   Why is this?
>
> Ah yes, the "Windoze" 2-1-1 addon is only for MVC, not Morphic, which is
> why you're not seeing it in the Morphic projects.  MVC is the default
> windowing environment that Squeak starts up in.  If you're not clear on
> which is which, remember that MVC window title bars have the square
> controls, and Morphic window title bars have the X and O.  MVC scrollbars
> are white, Morphic scrollbars are blue/gray, etc.

I understand the difference in look.  But I was initially a little confused
by the base image because I found an MVC project and Morphic project already
open, and the other Morphic projects/windows sitting minimized on the MVC
project desktop.  Is this assessment correct?  Seems that the main MVC
project is central to everything.  Is it just another project that happened
to current in the base image, or is it somehow special in the grand Squeaky
scheme of things.


>
> To avoid frustration in general, I would recommend either programming in
> Morphic or MVC, and not mixing the two too much.

Sounds like good advice.  Which do you prefer?

> Personally, I think the Morphic scrollbars now behave closely enough to
> Windows that the "Windoze" file-in is not that necessary, especially if
> you set "inboardScrollbars" to true under Help/Edit Preferences.  You
> could do a little tweaking to the ScrollBar class to make them a little
> larger, change the colors, and remove the menu button if you really
> wanted.  Title bars are a different matter, although you can easily remove
> the titlebar-click-to-rename "problem" by commenting out the line "label
> on: #mouseDown send: #relabel to: self" in SystemWindow>>initialize, which
> improves things somewhat.

How about "on mouse down with shift-key pressed"?

Thanks for all that.