Odd Mail.app behaviour..

[grizz416]

Something I've noticed with Mail that is annoying me. I'm using OS X 10.0.4 on a PowerBook G3 400 (FireWire) with 192Mb of RAM (soon to be 512Mb). When I dock the Mail window, and use OmniWeb (for example), then quit OmniWeb, the Mail window automatically reappears. No other window does this, and it's with any application, I quit it, and Mail reappears from the dock.

Any ideas or has anyone seen this?

 

[endian]

According to the HIG, Mail is doing what it's supposed to

From Aqua Human Interface Guidelines:

When a user clicks an open application’s icon in the Dock, the application becomes
active and all open unminimized windows are brought to the front; minimized
document windows remain in the Dock. If there are no unminimized windows
when the user clicks the icon, the last minimized window should be expanded and
made active. If no documents are open, the application should open a new window.

It depends on whether you put the emphasis on 'When a user clicks an app's icon' or 'the application becomes active' whether this is right or not.

 

[grizz416]

No, that's not it. If I have AppleWorks open, IE 5.1.1, and Mail, and I quit either AW or IE, the Mail window which is in the dock, reappears. I just did a test now, AppleWorks, IE 5.1.1, and Terminal - I had a spreadsheet open in AW, this page in IE 5.1.1, and a terminal session open. All three windows were docked (by that I mean clicking on the orange button at the top left of each window, doing it's little genie thing into the dock). I then un-docked AppleWorks spreadsheet and quit - none of the other windows appeared and I was returned to IE 5.1.1, but no window appears - I have to go back to the dock to undock the window for IE or for Terminal.

Mail doesn't do that - it automatically brings the window back from the dock, which is inconsistent with the HIG, if one app does it, and everything else doesn't.

 

[endian]

But the HIG says that when an app is brought to the front, the last minimized window should be unminimized (it mentions the dock specifically, it's unclear in the case of an app quitting.) It is inconsistent, but Mail isn't the one that needs to be changed to comply with the guidelines.

Clicking your application icon in the Dock should always result in a window - adocument or another appropriate window - becoming active.

 

[grizz416]

That doesn't explain AppleWorks doing the same thing, though. Mail may be doing what the HIG suggests, but none of the other apps are - including Apple's own AppleWorks and Terminal.