Modeless "Adjust" windows can be annoying

Posted by Mike Cowperthwaite on Dec 21, 2009; 5:53pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Modeless-Adjust-windows-can-be-annoying-tp3689943.html

While analyzing images, I frequently use the Image>Adjust dialog
windows, Threshold and Window/Level in particular.  These modeless
dialogs have a feature which I assume is intentional: when it's open and
you change the active window from an image to the dialog, the dialog's
settings are automatically, immediately applied to the image.

This leads to the following undesirable behavior:  I have two images
open.  On one, I set a threshold, then eventually close that image
window.  The other image becomes "active."  Then I click the Close
widget on the Threshold dialog, and suddenly my other image is
unintentionally thresholded.  I now have to reopen the dialog, click
Reset, and then close it again.

I'm not sure how useful the automatic apply-on-activate-dialog feature
is, given the Apply button on the dialogs that does the same thing under
explicit user control.  I would say that the on-activate action should
be removed.  But, if there is a compelling use case, then at least the
action should be suppressed when the Close widget is clicked.


Additionally, these dialogs should not be maximizable or resizable; I
don't think they should have Minimize buttons either, but I can see how
some people might need those.  If the Minimize option is kept and the
apply-on-activate feature is also kept, then I would say the automatic
apply should also be suppressed when the window is restored from minimized.


--
Mike Cowperthwaite
Lathrop Engineering, San Jose CA