Widget sensitivity and tooltips

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

Gtk+ widgets which have been made insensitive to user input do not show
tooltips and cannot be focused.

A widget should be made insenstive if its function can not be called.
The effects of this are a change in the normal appearance of the widget
(usually a dimming), that the widget does not respond to user activity
such as clicking or releasing a button or typing, that the widget cannot
be focused, and that it does not show its tooltip.

These last two effects limit the usability and the accessibility of programs.

The usability is limited because the interface cannot be fully explored; there
is no way to see the help provided by a tooltip which, for one, might indicate
why the widget is insensitive.

The accessibility is twice limited because the existence of the widget may
not even be known if it is not in the focus path and also it can not be made
to present a tooltip.

This seems to be a known problem in the way sensitivity is handled;
unfortunately, it also seems to have been punted to a later version.

Anyone got the time to spare before 2.0?


FYI,
Greg Merchan