Inside Macintosh: Mac OS 8 Toolbox Reference /

Chapter 2 - Control Manager Reference / Control Manager Functions

Manipulating Controls

When showing, hiding, activating, or deactivating groups of controls, the state of an embedded control that is hidden or deactivated is preserved so that when the embedder control is shown or activated, the embedded control appears in the same state as the embedder. An embedded control is considered latent when it is deactivated or hidden due to its embedder control being deactivated or hidden. If you activate a latent embedded control whose embedder is deactivated, the embedded control becomes latent until the embedder is activated. However, if you deactivate a latent embedded control, it will not be activated when its embedder is activated.

When activating and deactivating controls in an embedding hierarchy, call ActivateControl and DeactivateControl instead of HiliteControl to ensure that latent embedded controls are displayed correctly.