Minor UI annoyance

[edstaffin]

So I go to create a new indicator and the wizard dialog pops up. I went to refer to some old code in notepad for guidance and when I opened notepad, or anything else, the wizard dialog was in the way. In other words, the z-order was set so high that NOTHING else can get in front of it. Doesn't seem right.
Thanks ... Ed

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Thanks for the feedback, this is expected currently as otherwise model windows would get lost under other windows if it wasn't always on top. Resulting in scenarios where the model window gets 'lost' and you cannot find it in the task bar being blocked from using the application since a modal window is open. This was an issue in NT7 as well however with NinjaTrader 8 UI utilizing multiple UI threads for processing made losing windows even easier to do. Our solution is to make modal windows always on top.

[edstaffin]

Don't buy it. I should be able bring up a browser (for example) and not have that dialog in my face.
Try it yourself. Open up IE, go to tools/options. It brings up a dialog. Now open your favorite program. It opens in front of the dialog. If I click on the dialog OR IE behind it, IE with the dialog comes to the front. This is pretty standard stuff. You should fix this.
Thanks ... Ed

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Understand, I'll add it to the list but just letting you know we made a conscious decision to implement it that way. Of course if we get enough feedback we could revisit and see if anything could be changed. SFT-458

[edstaffin]

What happens if I had 3 other programs with the same behavior? Who wins?

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

In that case the application that last opened its window would win. This is how "Always On Top" works in windows. You can reproduce the same scenario with "Always On Top" being enabled on any NinjaTrader window (Right click > Properties > Always On Top) and then enabling "Always On Top" in another application at the same time. (Or even multiple NT windows)

[koganam]

Understand, I'll add it to the list but just letting you know we made a conscious decision to implement it that way. Of course if we get enough feedback we could revisit and see if anything could be changed. SFT-458

Yes, modal windows should be modal only to their parent application.

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Generally I agree, however in the interest of completeness I will give you this technical info so you can at least see why the decision was made. If you do not follow the technical info then no worries, just know that we have the feedback on the list.

Since NT8 has multiple UI threads (an enhancement customers demanded) per microsoft's definition of modality its only modal to the UI thread that spawned it. This means that with NT8 if you have an 8 core PC it actually runs like 8 separate processes. Meaning that modality in a single UI thread would not cross over to the others. This in itself was a problem which we had to implement several items to resolve, one of them being the Always on top action which is the subject of this thread. There are limited options on what we could do and very little middle ground if any remains to satisfy modality in NT8 without the always on top side effect. However if we get enough user feedback we likely would start looking for any stones far off in the distance that could be turned if this becomes a usability issue.

[koganam]

Generally I agree, however in the interest of completeness I will give you this technical info so you can at least see why the decision was made. If you do not follow the technical info then no worries, just know that we have the feedback on the list.

Since NT8 has multiple UI threads (an enhancement customers demanded) per microsoft's definition of modality its only modal to the UI thread that spawned it. This means that with NT8 if you have an 8 core PC it actually runs like 8 separate processes. Meaning that modality in a single UI thread would not cross over to the others. This in itself was a problem which we had to implement several items to resolve, one of them being the Always on top action which is the subject of this thread. There are limited options on what we could do and very little middle ground if any remains to satisfy modality in NT8 without the always on top side effect. However if we get enough user feedback we likely would start looking for any stones far off in the distance that could be turned if this becomes a usability issue.

Threads are owned by a process. albeit they can be handled individually. Threads are not quite totally independent entities (mutually independent, sure). Modality can be set relative to the owning process.

That having been said, I can understand that there might be challenges, and I actually agree that it is something that may need to be deferred, pending popular complaint.

[edstaffin]

That's what I was trying to say all along. You just did it better!

[edstaffin]

As I said in the original post subject it is a minor annoyance, not a show stopper. In theory, you should be able to track threads by process but I can understand your reluctance to spend dev resources on a nit. We'll see if anyone else complains.