The Window Manager Window Panes
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» Part 7 - The Desktop
» The Window Manager
» Technical Details
» Windows Panes
Overview
Window panes are similar to standard windows with one major difference: they are attached to other windows. These windows are called Tool Windows. Normally panes are attached to the outer edge of Tool windows. As a Tool window gets dragged by a mouse pointer, so do the panes.
They are often used to display commonly used icons in an application.
Definition
Window panes are actually defined as a standard window with one difference; within the Window Flags, bit 5 is set to specify a pane window.
This flag is used in two different circumstances:
| 1 | When a pane gets the input focus, the tool window is highlighted. |
| 2 | When toggling the tool window, the Wimp must treat panes as transparent. |
Usage
Although window panes can increase the productivity of an application, they do require more effort. For a start, the application itself must handle all the management of window panes.
Important aspects to consider when dealing with window panes are:
| 1 | When a Tool window is closed, any attached panes must also be closed by the application. |
| 2 | When a Tool window is opened, any attached panes must be opened by the application. |
Notes:
- To open a pane window at the correct co-ordinates, an application should first get the co-ordinates of the Tool window and then calculate the appropriate position of the pane.
- Unwanted redraws can be caused if the order in which windows are opened is not optimised.
See also
- Wimp_OpenWIndow?
- Window Flags
- Open_Window_Request