Re: Carbon / USE_MAC_TOOLBAR: click in tool bar doesn't raise frame

[David Reitter]

On 17 Apr 2008, at 09:02, YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu wrote:
> > Yes, of course that selects the window, but it does so even when the
> > button can be selected otherwise, i.e. there's no "click-through".
>
> Maybe I don't understand.  I think they've been always click-through
> even without the patch.  What do you mean by "select the button"?

Yes, they have been click-through, without the patch.
With your patch, frames are selected unconditionally, and they  
shouldn't be.

Toolbar items should be clickable without selecting (and raising) the  
frame, if they are actually enabled.
This is called "click-through".

If they are not enabled (:enabled nil), then clicking on them should  
result in the frame being raised and selected.
The same applies to any other click on a non-enabled surface.

Most toolbar items should respond to click-through.  Some dangerous  
actions (which cannot easily be undone) should lead to the associated  
item being disabled when the frame is not selected. As a consequence,  
users will click on the toolbar item, which will raise / select the  
frame.  That way, the item becomes enabled and can be clicked normally.
Note that this last part is not to be implemented by the C layer.   
Toolbar items can have that simply in their :enabled property.

N.B., this is not a specific feature; it's merely the correct way of  
doing the UI with this particular toolkit.  Other toolkits may have  
different standards.

Refer to:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGWindows/chapter_18_section_5.html

(heading: Click-Through)