On Thursday 04 November 2004 9:43 am, Trygve Reenskaug wrote:
> I have a subclass of PasteUpMorph called DialogMorph.
> The only thing special about it is this method:
>        morphicLayerNumber
>          " Should make dialog stay in front (most of the time), but DOESN'T
> " ^3
>
> But it doesn't stay in front. I can clock any window and it pops in front
> of myDialog.
>
> Anybody have any ideas?

Yes.

Pretty much the only time that morphicLayerNumber actually does anything is 
when you call addMorphInLayer:

openInWorld: aWorld
 aWorld addMorphInLayer: self.
 aWorld startSteppingSubmorphsOf: self

However, grabbing morphs with the hand and changing between SystemWindows (who 
maintain their topmost order) don't respect this.

What I recommend for a morph that really wants to maintain its layer order is 
to do it in a step method:

step
 owner ifNil: [ ^self stopStepping ].
 owner addMorphInLayer: self

or if you *really* want to stay in front of *everything except the hand*:

step
 owner ifNil: [ ^self stopStepping ].
 owner addMorph: self behind: owner activeHand

-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com/squeak/