cocoaforge

Hi!

In general, when you click on a window on the mac that does not have focus, that mouse click does not generate events in the application of the new window; it just gets focus. Adium is processing the focus-getting click and responding to it as if it already had focus. This should probably be changed so that it behaves as other Mac applications do.

Almo!

I believe this is also called "click-through," as in certain buttons are click-through (can be clicked even when the window is in the background).


I believe the default behavior in Cocoa apps (and Adium is a Cocoa app) is that the toolbar of a window is click-through, but everything else is not click-through.

However, this behavior is implemented very inconsistently in a lot apps, even sometimes in Apple's own apps.


The current behavior in Adium is also a bit inconsistent.

In the Contact List, contacts are correctly not click-through, but groups are. (Try clicking the arrow of a group while the window is in the background.)

In Message windows, the main "send and received messages" area is not click-through as well as the "type message" text box, which is correct. However, the tab bar is click-through: the tabs, the close buttons, etc. That, IMO, should also be not click-through.


Also, related topic: I also requested that the "Send notification" button be not click-through: http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=17338

Click-through has always surprised me. It seems obvious that it's a bad interface design. Windows is more generally click-through, and I can't tell you how many times I've clicked a window just to get focus and done something bad in the window because the window was partially obscured and I didn't know what I was hitting.

almo wrote:Click-through has always surprised me. It seems obvious that it's a bad interface design.

There's nothing inherently wrong with click-through.

It's just that there's a time and place for it.

You might have noticed that everything in Carbon apps (iTunes, Finder, etc.) are not click-through by default.

And yet, Finder windows' "folder content area" (where you see files and folders) are click-through, meaning the developers purposefully made that click-through. Why? Because in that case, it is actually quite convenient to have that area be click-through, or else, whenever we want to drag stuff from one window/folder to another, we'd have to *click* focus, click and drag, *click* focus, click and drag, etc.

And also, though iTunes's controls are not click-through, they are when iTunes is in MiniPlayer mode. You can probably imagine why.


So indeed, in certain situations, click-through is actually very helpful and practical. (And in cases such as the "Send notification" button, it definitely is not. ;p )


Here's a very interesting (and long) article (or whatever Daring Fireball entries are supposed to be) about click-through:

http://daringfireball.net/2003/05/much_ ... ickthrough

almo wrote:Windows is more generally click-through, and I can't tell you how many times I've clicked a window just to get focus and done something bad in the window because the window was partially obscured and I didn't know what I was hitting.

I'd argue that it's different in Windows, since in Windows, you mainly use the Taskbar to switch windows (perhaps a side effect of Windows "encouraging" users to work with maximized windows), while in Mac OS X, you still rely on good ole "clicking on the window" to bring it to the foreground, though yes, nowadays, there is also the Dock (more for focusing all the windows of an app though) and Exposé, but these should be considered secondary methods.

remain wrote: but these should be considered secondary methods.

Why?