On Apr 8, 2007, at 7:50 PM, Joe Huber wrote:

> At 8:15 PM -0400 4/8/07, Roger Clary wrote:
>>
>> IMHO. this is not a bug but expected, and desired, behavior.
>
> According to the Apple HIG, Tabbing into a single line editfield
> should select all the text, but clicking into it should place the
> insertion point where you cicked. Hence the bug.

I agree that it's not strictly according to the HIG rules but, once I  
became used to the new behavior, I really started to prefer it.

Why?... Well, 99% of those times I click on a property's box (in  
general), I wish to change the entire contents anyway. If I wish to  
edit what's there, a simple click to select the insertion point or  
using the arrow keys, I can select the precise point to edit. Using  
the arrow keys often creates an internal error though that's a  
separate bug.

Apple's finder does almost the same thing. If one clicks on the text  
of a previously selected icon (on the desktop), the entire name is  
selected. Hitting the space bar immediately replaces the name with a  
space. I learned that the hard way after accidentally renaming my  
MacintoshHD to " " a few times. :-(

Not only that, but I find it is similar to what Apple uses in  
AppleWorks spreadsheets where it is much less obvious. In AppleWorks,  
if one clicks on a cell and begins typing, it immediately erases the  
previous data without warning (no Highlighting) and is much less  
obvious. At least one gets a warning by the text being highlighted  
whereas, in AppleWorks, you've no way to recover other than close the  
file and reopen it's previous version.

So even Apple screws up its own guidelines from time to time. Or at  
least, strays from them.

In my project's editfields, however, it behaves according to the HIG  
pretty well. I would be more concerned if it happened there  
automatically. I prefer to handle this auto-selection myself by  
placing the appropriate code in the GotFocus event.

So, maybe it is by design. Either way, I prefer the current behavior  
even if it doesn't follow the HIG rules exactly.

Aren't rules simply made to be broken anyway? :)

Terry

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