Question Regarding Key Windows

First off, thanks very much for the reply. It was tremendously helpful.

>nope, you are using different terminology than apple does.

That pretty much follows. I'm trying to understand it in the context of
what I've known for years, which probably isn't going to work very well
(if at all). But I *really* want to understand this stuff. Given your
response, I'm glad I asked.
> there is only one key window at a time. note up there, where you said there
> can be only one ACTIVE window? replace that with "key." there can be
> only one "key" window at a time.

Okay, I think I got it now. A window becomes THE key window when it's
makeKeyAndOrderFront method is called. When it becomes the key, the
previous key window ceases to be the key window. In Windows, we'd say that
only one window can have the input focus at a time. That window responds to
key presses. If you want another window to have the focus, you have to
move the input focus to that window. When you do that, no other windows
get keystrokes. The two are analogous. I think.
>to further confuse matters, there's also the "main" window, and it's probably
>not referring to what you'd think. you can have different main windows at
>different times. this is to support the concept of floating tool windows.
>say you're mousing info into a color selection panel, and in doing so, you're
>changing the color of something in some other window. the color panel would
>be the key window, and the one that's having its color changed is the main
>window.

I'll grapple with that topic when I get to it!!! :-D



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