bug#16636: 24.3.50; REGRESSION: y/n file dialog is only flashed; input is not read

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 10:51:42 -0800 (PST)
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Cc: 16636@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > For "simple" Yes/No questions, Emacs on Windows uses a message box.
> > For more complex dialogs, it displays a menu, because no one has yet
> > written code that displays Windows dialog boxes for that.
> 
> Out of curiosity, why do we think that one is better than the other?

I guess because it is closer to a real dialog box, with buttons and
such likes.  It's just that no one wrote the code to implement dialogs
on Windows (more accurately, the code is incomplete and disabled), so
we are using cheap and easy replacements.

> I guess the message box is better because you can just hit RET if
> you want the default?  I agree that that is important, but is that
> the only reason to prefer a message box?

I don't know, I wasn't around when that was written.

> > The bug happened because the code which invokes the "simple dialog"
> > was inadvertently deleted.
> 
> I see.  But in that case, shouldn't the menu have been displayed
> normally, in place of the message box?  I would think that the
> problem was the invisible and automatically dismissed menu, not
> the fact that the menu was used instead of a message box.  I feel
> like I must be missing something, but I'm guessing that it's not
> important that I understand.

You are not missing anything.  It is quite possible that a separate
problem still exists that causes menus to pop down without giving the
user a chance to make a selection, in some situations.  Probably some
unexpected event comes in after the menu is displayed and causes it to
pop down.  But I cannot reproduce this after fixing the message box
display, not with your recipe, anyway.  If you see any such problems,
please report them with the recipe to reproduce.