Immediate Children of the Root View Are Special
One of the Newton 2.x OS Q&As
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This document was exported on 7/23/97.
Immediate Children of the Root View Are Special (11/17/94)
- Q: In trying to make a better "modal" dialog, I am attempting to create a child of the root view that is full-screen and transparent. When I do this, the other views always disappear, and reappear when the window is closed. Why?
A: Immediate children of the root view are handled differently by the view system. They cannot be transparent, and will be filled white unless otherwise specified. Also, unlike other views in Newton 2.0 OS, their borders are considered part of the view and so taps in the borders will be sent to them.
This was done deliberately to discourage tap-stealing and other unusual view interaction. Each top level view (usually one application) is intended to stand on its own and operate independently of other applications.
So-called "application modal" dialogs can and should be implemented using the technique you describe with the transparent window as a child of the application's base view.
You can make system modal dialogs with the view methods FilterDialog and ModalDialog. (See the Q&A "FilterDialog and ModalDialog Limitations" for important information on those methods.)