Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials /

Chapter 4 - Window Manager

This chapter describes how your application can use the Window Manager to create and manage windows.

A Macintosh application uses windows for most communication with the user, from discrete interactions like presenting and acknowledging alert boxes to open-ended interactions like creating and editing documents. Users generally type words and formulas, draw pictures, or otherwise enter data in a window on the screen. Your application typically lets the user save this data in a file, open saved files, and view
the saved data in a window. See the chapter "Introduction to File Management" in
Inside Macintosh: Files for more information about handling files.

A window can be any size or shape, and the user can display any number of windows, within the limits of available memory, on the screen at once.

The Window Manager defines a set of standard windows and provides a set of routines for managing them. The Window Manager helps your application display windows that are consistent with the Macintosh user interface. See Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines for a detailed description of windows and their behavior.

You typically store information about your windows in resources. This chapter describes the standard window resources. For general information on resources, see the chapter "Introduction to the Macintosh Toolbox" in this book. For information on Resource Manager routines, see the chapter "Resource Manager" in Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox.

The Window Manager itself depends on QuickDraw, the part of the Macintosh system software that handles quick manipulation of graphics. QuickDraw supports drawing into graphics ports, which are individual and complete drawing environments with independent coordinate systems. Each window represents a graphics port, which is described in Inside Macintosh: Imaging.

To maintain its windows, your application needs to know what actions the user is taking on the desktop. It receives this information through events, which are messages that describe user actions and report on the processing status of your application. This chapter describes the events that affect window display and considers mouse-down and keyboard events as they relate to windows. For a complete description of events and how your application handles them, see the chapter "Event Manager" in this book.

Most document windows contain controls, which are screen images the user manipulates to control the display or the behavior of the application. This chapter illustrates the controls most commonly used in windows. For more information on creating and responding to controls, see the chapter "Control Manager" in this book.

You use the Window Manager to create and display a new window when the user creates a new document or opens an existing document. When the user clicks or holds down the mouse button while the cursor is in a window created by your application, you use the Window Manager to determine the location of the mouse action and to
alter the window display as appropriate. When the user closes a window, you use the Window Manager to remove the window from the screen.

This chapter describes how the Window Manager supports windows and then explains how you can use the Window Manager to

• create and display windows
• handle events in windows
• change the display when the user moves or resizes windows
• remove windows

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Chapter Contents

Introduction to Windows

Active and Inactive Windows

Types of Windows

Window Regions

Dialog Boxes and Alert Boxes

Controls

Windows on the Desktop

About the Window Manager

Graphics Ports

Window Records

Color Windows

Events in Windows

Using the Window Manager

Managing Multiple Windows

Creating a Window

Defining a Window Resource

Creating a Window From a Resource

Positioning a Document Window on the Desktop

Drawing the Window Contents

Updating the Content Region

Maintaining the Update Region

Handling Events in Windows

Handling Mouse Events in Windows

Handling Keyboard Events in Windows

Handling Update Events

Handling Activate Events

Moving a Window

Zooming a Window

Resizing a Window

Closing a Window

Hiding and Showing a Window

Window Manager Reference

Data Structures

The Color Window Record

The Window Record

The Window State Data Record

The Window Color Table Record

The Auxiliary Window Record

The Window List

Window Manager Routines

Initializing the Window Manager

Creating Windows

Naming Windows

Displaying Windows

Retrieving Window Information

Moving Windows

Resizing Windows

Zooming Windows

Closing and Deallocating Windows

Maintaining the Update Region

Setting and Retrieving Other Window Characteristics

Manipulating the Desktop

Manipulating Window Color Information

Low-Level Routines

Application-Defined Routine

The Window Definition Function

Resources

The Window Resource

The Window Definition Function Resource

The Window Color Table Resource

Summary of the Window Manager

Pascal Summary

Constants

Data Types

Window Manager Routines

Application-Defined Routine

C Summary

Constants

Data Types

Window Manager Routines

Application-Defined Routine

Assembly-Language Summary

Data Types

Global Variables