On Feb 3, 2010, at 3:08 PM, Emmett wrote:

> Is there anything I should know to help simplify this process?


A few general thoughts:

(1) There are several window helpers in the Windows manager to achieve  
some things automatically. For example, the fn RepositionWindow, given  
a parent window and the window to manipulate, can cascade the new  
window on the parent window( this function does other positioning  
too ). Xcode nicely classifies all the window calls and there is a  
section titled "Sizing and Positioning Windows".

(2) In modern applications, moving windows is an activity left largely  
to the user's discretion and very rarely does an application move  
them. Occasionally, applications do resize windows but this is  
typically in response to a user request ( a typical example is a  
window that might expand for a given button press to expose and  
provide space for more controls and then shrink back again when those  
controls are not needed ).

(3) In a modern Cocoa/Carbon Events application, most window events  
( resizing, moving, collapsing by the user for example ) are handled  
automatically. The programmer can optionally intercept events and add  
whatever behavior is required.

Brian S