problems with non-modal dialogs

[pixelzoom]

Noted while reviewing #166.

These problem occur in master, as of joist 4c143a8. They can be demonstrated by running the joist demo application (joist/joist_en.hmtl). Note that the demo currently contains 2 instances of DialogsDemoView, so that you can test switching between screens.

A non-modal dialog may be global (if created by the PhET menu) or specific to a screen (if created by the screen).

Problems with the current implementation non-modal dialogs:

(1) The close button does not work.

(2) For screen-specific non-modal dialogs, behavior when switching screens is incorrect. When switching screens, dialogs should disappear along with screen. When returning to a screen, dialogs specific to that screen should be restored. Currently, dialogs remain on the screen regardless of which screen is selected.

(3) Non-modal dialogs should be positionable. They are currently limited to centered on the screen.

(4) Non-modal dialogs should be movable, so that you can interact with other UI components. Their position is currently fixed.

(5) Placement of the close button can overlap with the dialog content. See screenshot below. This problem may not be limited to non-modal dialogs (untested with modal dialogs).

Assigned to @jonathanolson, the author of Dialog.

[pixelzoom]

Let's put an assertion in for now that bails if modal:false, until we can get around to addressing this.

[pixelzoom]

In #166 (comment), @jonathanolson asked:

is there a good use-case for non-centered?

Any non-modal dialog. (And any API I've ever worked with that supports dialogs.)

[pixelzoom]

@jonathanolson will add the assertion,

[samreid]

I fixed the "close button will not work" problem in #314.

[pixelzoom]

Issue 5 (placement of close button) is describe in more detail in #346, and is not specific to non-modal Dialogs.

[pixelzoom]

Issues 2-5 are still problems.

[pixelzoom]

3/29/18 dev meeting: @andrea-phet and I will triage this issue.

[pixelzoom]

Dialog was recent giving a major overhaul. While still not ideal, it's better. It does not support non-modal dialogs (modal: false) and there are currently no PhET sims with non-modal dialogs. So I'm going to close this issue. If/when PhET needs non-modal dialogs, we can create a new issue "support non-modal dialogs".

[samreid]

There are still TODOs marked for this issue, discovered during phetsims/chipper#946

[zepumph]

Removed the TODO over in phetsims/ratio-and-proportion#509 by moving the pdomVisibility stuff directly into Sim. Closing