49679 - No topmost tooltips

Status: NEW

(Core :: XUL, enhancement, P3)

Description

[[e-mail]]

Mozilla tooltips have the WS_EX_TOPMOST style but real Windows tooltops don't.

Steps to reproduce problem:
1. Start System Monitor or other program with an "Always On Top" settings
2. Start mozilla -console
3. Move System Monitor over where Mozilla's tooltip will display
4. Hover over Mozilla to display a tooltip
5. Move System Monitor over where Windows' tooltip will display
6. Hover over Mozilla's console's toolbar's buttons to display a tooltip

Actual result: Mozilla's tooltips display over System Monitor

Expected result: Windows' tooltips display under System Monitor

Additional information: If Mozilla starts performing a long operation (e.g.
loading a summary file) neither it is possible to dismiss the tooltip nor does
it disappear when tasks are switched.

Comment 1

[:deanis74]

adding self to cc: list

Comment 2

[:deanis74]

I'm seeing this, too.  This raises another issue, being that tooltips and 
mouseover effects shouldn't be active when the application isn't active.  But 
that's another day...

Looks like the offensive -- er... offending code is here:

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/widget/src/windows/nsWindow.cpp#3440

Comment 3

[:deanis74]

(My apologies to Neil, who already quoted the exact same line in lxr as the URL 
for this bug.)

Comment 4

[leger]

Reassigning from bdonohoe to hangas

Comment 5

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Clearly a bug, not a UI design issue.

This needs fixing on Windows, at any rate. It's also a problem on Mac (build 
2000082608, Mac OS 9.0), though with considerable precedent: with both 4.x and 
Office 98 on Mac (the only apps I can find with tooltips, as opposed to help 
balloons), the tooltips don't succeed in being topmost either. To reproduce: tear 
off the application switcher from the menu bar, and place it over where the 
tooltip is going to appear. If the tooltip appears under the application 
switcher, the wrong thing has happened.

John, can you try this on Linux? Does X have always-on-top-style windows at all?

Comment 6

[:deanis74]

Waitasec, Matt.  Are you saying that on the Mac, the tooltip should appear
_above_ the app switcher?  If so, that's the exact opposite of the desired
behavior on Windows, and the original bug description.

Comment 7

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Oh. Ok, I didn't read the bug properly. I'm sorry.

So, you're saying that tooltips shouldn't appear topmost, and the fact that they 
do in Mozilla on Windows is a bug in Mozilla. And I'm saying that tooltips should 
always appear topmost (assuming a fix for the other bug you described), and the 
fact that they don't in native tooltips on Windows is a bug in Windows.

Hmmm. Well, not as clear-cut as I thought, then, is it? Back to Hangas for a UI 
decision.

Comment 8

[:deanis74]

I don't think that's a bug in windows.  Nowhere is it indicated that anything 
Mozilla does will be in a topmost window.  So if I have Task Manager, WinZip, or 
whatever set to be on top of everything else, it will be pretty weird to have 
tooltips showing through from an application that's underneath said topmost 
window.

Comment 9

[John Morrison]

Just to answer mpt's question: I can't recall using an X app that had 'always
on top' behaviour, as in 'above any other app'. Certainly, a given window of an 
app can be set above other windows of that app, but not 'system' wide. (It's 
technically possible, but generally not done).

Comment 10

[:deanis74]

(Oh sure, as per usual Microsoft had to go and mess with this in Office 2000.  
Now tooltips display on top of top-most windows.  I don't like that, 
personally.)

Comment 11

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Ok, so tooltips come right to the top in Office 2000. Microsoft UI conventions 
tend to be introduced in IE, propagate to Office, and then to Windows itself. So, 
can anyone test what happens to tooltips in
* IE 5.5
* Windows 2000
* Windows ME? 
(I'll try all three at the cafe tomorrow, if no-one else has by then.) If 
tooltips in at least two of those three come right to the top, I think we will 
have found a new Microsoft UI convention which we should be following (both 
because we can assume it's going to become standard behavior, and because it's 
got greater usability).

Comment 12

[:deanis74]

IE 5.5 - tooltips remain underneath the Task Manager.  I'll try 2000 once I get 
to work.  Someone else will have to do Me.  (Gee, that sounded kind of odd)

Comment 13

[:deanis74]

Win2000 - ditto.  Looks like Office 2000 is the odd man out here.

Comment 14

[hangas]

Sending to XP apps.  

Comment 15

[hangas]

Getting tired, I meant Toolkit/Widgets.

Comment 16

[John Morrison]

-> future, no time in the current cycle

Comment 17

[Peter Trudelle]

accepting for future

Comment 18

[jag (Peter Annema)]

See related (but not dupe) bug 131131.

Comment 19

[[e-mail]]

*** Bug 222011 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***