Modality interpretation

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

Hi.

I'm working on X property guidelines for GNOME applications so that app
windows are treated correctly by at least GNOME HIG compliant window
managers. I need to make sure I'm interpreting the EWMH correctly.

There are three levels of modality recognized by most environments.
The Motif input mode hint covers these, though the terminology is
different from that of Windows or MacOS.

1) A "document modal" window prevents the user from interacting with
   one and only one other window on the screen. The user is free to
   interact with other windows.
   (MacOS X now uses "document modal sheets" for this purpose.)
   This is Motif's  MWM_INPUT_PRIMARY_APPLICATION_MODAL hint.

2) An "application modal" window prevents the user from interacting
   with any other window of the same application. The user is free
   to interact with windows of all other applications.
   (Open dialogs on Windows and MacOS are usuaully like this.
   This is Motif's  MWM_INPUT_FULL_APPLICATION_MODAL hint.

3) A "system modal" window prevents the user from interacting with
   any other window. The user must dismiss the system modal window
   before doing anything else.
   (Logout dialogs are usually like this.)
   This is Motif's  MWM_INPUT_SYSTEM_MODAL hint.

There are supposedly some other kinds of modality, but, short of
extraterrestrial invasion, I'm not going to concern myself with them.

As I read it, the EWMH supports only the first two kinds of modality.

1) For a "document modal" window (MWM_INPUT_PRIMARY_APPLICATION_MODAL),
   an application should set WM_TRANSIENT_FOR to the parent window, and
   set the _NET_WM_STATE_MODAL hint.

2) For an "application modal" window MWM_INPUT_FULL_APPLICATION_MODAL),
   an application should leave WM_TRANSIENT_FOR unset, and set the
   _NET_WM_STATE_MODAL hint.

So, I have these questions:
1) Is my interpretation correct?
2) What is an "application" for an "application modal" window?
3) How might a system modal window be created without a pointer, keyboard,
   or server grab, so that accessibility technologies may still be used?


Cheers,
Greg