60355 - Need to distinguish between `command' buttons and `block' buttons

Status: NEW

(Core :: XUL, defect, P4)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

In the Mac Classic theme, there are a number of buttons in Mozilla which have a 
rounded appearance
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-10.html> when they 
should have a rectangular appearance
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-16.html>.

These wrongly-shaped buttons include:
* the color buttons in the Colors category of the Preferences dialog
* the color buttons in the various formatting dialogs in Composer
* the Attachments menubutton in Messenger
* the Previous and Next buttons in the Account Wizard
* the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Languages category of the Preferences
  dialog
* the toolbar buttons in the image map editor in Composer.

This is due to a distinction which appears to be missing in XUL, between what I 
(for want of better terminology) refer to as `command' buttons and `block' 
buttons. `Command' buttons are those which do something with data entered by the 
user (e.g. `Search', `Go', `Cancel', `Ok'), or open new windows (e.g.
`Advanced ...'). `Block' buttons (known as `bevel buttons' in Mac OS) are used 
for most other purposes, such as arranging items in lists, navigating from one 
pane to another in a wizard or similar interface, and for any button which has a 
graphic in it (such as most toolbar buttons).

It so happens that the Mac Classic theme is the only theme currently suffering 
from the lack of this distinction, but it is likely that other themes (such as 
Aqua) may also choose to display these two different classes of button with 
different appearances in future.

Therefore, I suggest that this distinction be reflected in XUL -- either with an 
attribute for the <button> element, or with a new element which behaves the same 
as a <button> but which can be given a consistently different appearance.

I think an attribute would be the best approach, since the same attribute could 
late be used in other XUL elements to allow `block'-like appearance for radio 
buttons (e.g. the left/centered/right/justified toolbar buttons in Composer), 
checkboxes (e.g. the Bold and Italic toolbar buttons in Composer), and popup 
menus (e.g. a language popup menu in Navigator's status bar when bug 1995 is 
fixed).

Comment 1

[Peter Trudelle]

Would be good to know where this distinction is made in the HIG, and how it is
described in Mac toolkits.

Comment 2

[Peter Trudelle]

Doh!, didn't follow the links. I can see where this would merit an attr. ->pink
for consideration.  cc ben

Comment 3

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

what can i do about this?

Comment 4

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

By a coincidence, I have found that Windows has this distinction too. On 
Windows, `command' buttons can be activated by the Enter key when they have 
focus (taking the Enter key away from the default button). `Block' buttons do 
not do this; pressing Enter when a `block' button is focused will activate the 
default button, not the focused button. See bug 63728 for the gory details.

Comment 5

[Andrew Thompson]

Bevel buttons are alive and well in Aqua too. An attribute to deal with this 
would indeed be a boon.

Comment 6

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

This bug is targeted at a Mac classic platform/OS, which is no longer supported
by mozilla.org. Please re-target it to another platform/OS if this bug applies
there as well or resolve this bug.

I will resolve this bug as WONTFIX in four weeks if no action has been taken.
To filter this and similar messages out, please filter for "mac_cla_reorg".

Comment 7

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

Mass reassign of my non-Firefox bugs to [e-mail]