Non-modal help dialog blocked by modal dialogs

From: Patrick Lim (limpj68_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 02/26/04

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    Date: 26 Feb 2004 11:18:31 -0800

    Here is the problem:

    I have written a non-modal frame class in Java for displaying help
    text when a user is using an application. It works as desired in that
    if the user selects "help" again, the same frame is used -- this is
    done using a singleton. The user can do other stuff in the main
    window while the help window is up.

    However, when I have a modal dialog pop-up to get information from the
    user, it blocks events to the help window and continues that way until
    the modal dialog goes away. You can't even scroll the help window or
    tell it to go away. What I would like is for the user to still be
    able to use the help window, scroll it, whatever, and not have it
    blocked by the modal dialog. But I still want the rest of the
    application to be blocked until the modal dialog is done.

    Example: A user is using a GUI to edit some data. He brings up the
    help window to see what format the data should be in. The help window
    being up doesn't block anything. He then clicks a button to edit
    "item 1", and that data is shown in a modal dialog box for editing.
    He should not be able to do anything in the main app (like select a
    different item for editing or click other buttons) until he tells the
    edit dialog to go away. But he should still be able to work with the
    help window (scroll it, etc).

    I can't be the first person to want to have this kind of
    functionality, but I haven't been able to find how others have solved
    this problem. (Note: I am using JDK 1.3.0.)

    Thanks for any help you can offer.
    Patrick Lim

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