>Hi Terry
>
>I've only been programming for 25 years or so, and maybe it's old-school, but I like to control the application execution so that just one thing is happening at a time. Like opening an invoice batch "control centre" where you can perform operations on invoices, which allows you to create one new invoice at a time, or edit one invoice at a time.
>
>What I've always strived to avoid is the situation where:
>
>a) we would have to code for avoiding conflicts easily dealt with by running modal systems

Modal does reduce "developer" head-aches (it still hurts me when I have to think about something) - but "discriminating" users prefer modeless. I don't like the bell beep when I attempt to click another form - It makes me think I did something wrong.

In a modeless solution where the user has both the inventory and a sales order form open - once they commit units to a sell it gives them great comfort to see it immediately change their counts in inventory. They can see the program is working - their confidence in the solution is enhanced!

If the theme is control - then my view is that "control" is something the user finds value in. The difficulty I may have with a modeless implementation is not the users concern - that's what they pay me for - to make their life easier.

NO RULES!

I remember my first "real" client - he said "keep it simple - KISS" - I don't think he meant for me to write programs that were easy for me to write - he did not care about my "stress" - he wanted me to write programs that were simple for his users - eg - I endure stress for my paycheck - the users live the simple life.

Besides - most off the shelf packages are modeless - there is something that seems a little "homemade" about modal solutions - sure they're easy to develop - but they may not be as satisfying to the user as they are to the developer.