Modal window loses focus, index after switching windows application, bug in UX?

[balltrader]

Steps to reproduce:

Open ninjascript editor window.

Switch to NT Control Center, open Trading Hours window.

Trading Hours window in now modal and you cannot switch to NT Editor window.
AS Designed.

Drag Trading Hours window to different location on screen to be able to view Editor window.

Now switch to a different Window Application, such as Google Chrome web browser.

Now Click on open program button labeled "NinjaScript Editor" in the Windows task bar.

The editor is displayed, but does not respond to any mouse or keyboard activity.

Reason:
The Trading Hours window is still modal and is blocking input to the Editor window from mouse or keyboard, but the Trading Hours modal window is a descendant of NT Control Center, and therefore it is not displayed on screen to flash it's title bar when trying to send input to Editor window.

Windows Task Manager does not indicate any NT windows in state of "Not Responding"

Very confusing and make you think NT has hanged or froze...

[NinjaTrader_JoshG]

Hello balltrader,
Thanks for your note.

This behavior is expected. However, I will forward this to our QA team for review anyway.

Is there a specific reason that you would like to have the NS Editor window and the Trading Hours window open at the same time?

[balltrader]

hi,

1. this behavior is the opposite of what is expected of a modal window. please reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_window

"In user interface design for computer applications, a modal window is a graphical control element subordinate to an application's main window. It creates a mode that disables the main window, but keeps it visible with the modal window as a child window in front of it. Users must interact with the modal window before they can return to the parent application."

So when I return to the NinjaTrader application, no matter which interface window I click on, i.e. Editor window, the existing active modal window should be in my face saying "You shall not pass!"

2. it was just a random workflow I was involved in, editing some code, needing to see how a trading session was delineated so I opened the Trading Hours window, needing to switch to a web browser window to enter some programming notes into a google doc, and then switching back to the ninjatrader editor.

That is when the Principle of least astonishment was violated, "In general engineering design contexts, the principle means that a component of a system should behave in a way that users expect it to behave; that is, users should not be astonished by its behavior."

[NinjaTrader_JoshG]

I agree with you that this is not ideal behavior.

However, after speaking with our QA team it seems that this is a limitation of NinjaTrader 8 being multi-threaded. Each of NinjaTraders windows are on different threads and the modal window will only correspond to the thread it is attached to.

It looks like there have been workarounds in the past but they were removed based on user feedback.

I will submit a request to have this handled as you outlined and will let you know when I have further information.

EDIT : Internal Tracking number is SFT-3179