Mac OS 8.5 Technote: Part XLV

Copyright 1998 by Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Inside the System File (Continued)

Window Manager

The Window Manager provides facilities for drawing and maintaining windows on the screen.
  • The Window Manager is now implemented in PowerPC code.

  • An extensible, collection-based window resource format ('wind') has been added.

  • Floating window support has been added with the routines CreateNewWindow, GetWindowClass, ShowFloatingWindows, HideFloatingWindows, and AreFloatingWindowsVisible.

  • Extensive error and parameter checking has been added to all routines.

  • New, advanced window positioning support routines have been added, including SetWindowBounds, GetWindowBounds, MoveWindowStructure, ZoomWindowIdeal, and IsWindowInStandardState.

  • Support for associating tagged data with windows (properties) has been added.

  • GetWindowRegion is a new call that always returns the visible state of the specified region, even for invisible windows.

  • Update events will no longer occur in foreground application windows when overlapping windows in background applications become visible.

  • A window's background can now be set to a specific color or pattern without the use of a 'wctb' resource.

  • Routines for modifying a window's update region without changing the current port have been added (InvalWindowRgn/Rect, ValidWindowRgn/Rect).

  • Support for window title popup menus has been added.

  • The TransitionWindow routine has been added for attaching animation and sound to a window for different on-screen actions such as showing or hiding a window.

  • Under some circumstances, parts of the desktop were not being redrawn correctly. This has been corrected.

  • Support for window proxies has been added.

  • Window titles are now drawn using condensed and truncated text if the window's title is too large to be displayed in the title bar.

WARNING:
Applications using the undocumented and unsupported Layer Manager interface for floating windows will not work with Mac OS 8.5.

WARNING:
Applications writing directly to the low-memory window list global, either by direct access or by LMSetWindowList, may have problems in Mac OS 8.5. It is strongly recommended that developers interested in future compatibility treat the window list as read-only.

WARNING:
Applications writing directly to the GrayRgn may cause problems in Mac OS 8.5, and may cease to work properly in future versions of Mac OS. Developers interested in future compatibility should use the new ShowMenuBar/HideMenuBar routines instead.

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