Chapter 4 - Events
This chapter describes how you can use the Event Manager to receive information about user actions and to receive notice of changes in the processing status of your application. One of the key elements of a well-written Macintosh application is its "user-centered" design. This means, among other things, that instead of carrying out a sequence of steps in a predetermined order, the application is driven primarily by user actions (such as moving the mouse, pressing the mouse button, and typing characters) whose order cannot in general be predicted. This chapter describes how the Macintosh system software reports user actions to your application and shows how to structure your application to facilitate the implementation of user-centered design.This chapter begins by describing some of the features of a good user-centered design and some general ways to implement them. Then it shows how to
For a complete description of the capabilities of the Event Manager, see the chapter "Event Manager" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials. For the complete story on the features of a good user interface, see Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines.
- initialize the basic Toolbox managers
- receive information from the Event Manager about user actions
- respond to user actions
Chapter Contents
- About Events
- Initializing an Application
- Receiving Events
- Handling Events Outside the Main Event Loop
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