FM10 special character

[Combs, Richard]

Robert Lauriston wrote: 
 
> It shows up in Windows Task Manager as CharacterMap.exe *32 on my
> system. Agreed it's an odd application.
> 
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 5:13 AM, Rick Quatro <rick at rickquatro.com>
> wrote:
> > Speaking of the character palette, this is a pretty odd
> "application". When
> > you display it, and then click on the FrameMaker window or any other
> > application, it disappears. There is no evidence of it in the Windows
> task
> > bar, etc., ...

It shows up in Task Manager as soon as I start FM 10. And it remains until FM 10 is shut down. Apparently, File > Utilities > Character Palette serves only to make the window visible. 

CharacterMap.exe is in the $FMHOME\fminit directory. When I run it with FM 10 closed, it appears briefly in the Task Manager Processes list and then terminates itself. 

This is pretty sucky programming, IMHO. If they're not going to let it run as a free-standing program, then it shouldn't be a .exe, it should be a .dll. And it shouldn't load into memory until invoked. In any case, the window behavior is disconcerting and contrary to all known UI standards. Why wouldn't they simply make this a standard non-modal dialog box?

And the color scheme -- white letters on dark blue/purple -- really? Well, at least the glyph you hover over is shown enlarged and black on white. And the window can be resized, unlike the Windows Character Map application (charmap.exe). Still, I think I'll stick with the latter. 

Just curious -- can someone with FM 11 report on whether any of this has changed? 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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