Good idea... even us power users have trouble fumbling with the CTRL+break combo on a lappy, especially when things go awry and you're in "whoops" mode. :-)

Well, if there has to be a stop button, it'd better works like Ctrl+Break.

only if this is tied to a preference or ini parameter and is default off. Last thing we need is people clicking that just because it is there

Couldn't agree more, with my MBP where I don't have a Break key, I have to get up a soft keyboard to break out of agents etc. Yes Please :-)

Make it visible only if the designer is installed/running ?

@5 - Theo, the thing that made me think about this was overhearing my boss tell our financial controller that she could stop a hung reply message by hitting Ctrl+Break. I think it has excellent end-user applications.

The only reason I'd want to policy-control it per John's suggestion is because so few Notes apps have graceful handling of a Ctrl+Break event today. But this would just make us all write better code.

The thought that the end users can easily ctrl-break scares the hell out of me. I'm thinking about an LS action button I've written that updates thousands of documents while the user waits (they are all so patient, you know). The reality, though, is that it doesn't take a ctrl-break like action to kill a script like that. Bad wireless connectivity, a server outage, a crash of the user's machine could all create the same problem, and my code ought to handle it. Unfortunately, it probably doesn't. While it might increase the likelihood of a script stopping before successful completion, a stop button certainly wouldn't be the sole cause.

So, Nathan, you've given one scenario where this may be useful to the users. What are some others? I'm trying to understand the full benefit of this for the users given the potential trade-off that our old or less-"graceful" code might see more early terminations and/or problems.

AMEN! And Matt, which soft keyboard do you use on your Mac? I've installed on in XP in VMware to no avail...

It sounds like a perfect marriage of this idea and the suggestions that follow is to have it be a Notes client context-plugin that installs when the Designer client is installed.

Whoops, #5 already suggested that. Theo, I wholeheartedly agree with you! :-)

Jess is an idea jam newbie as of today. Welcome aboard Jess!

Thanks Bruce! Better late than never, right? Like I said, lately, if I managed to get dressed I consider it a productive day. I'm coding and admining with an infant glued to my hip. So anything that makes life easier, and will allow me to get something done quicker is a BIG PROMOTE from me. :-)

@8 - I just use the keyboard that comes with Windows... Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Accessibility --> On Screen Keyboard, it offers enough functionality to be able to send a Ctrl-Break to Notes.

The Ctrl+Break is something I train my clients' end-users and well, unless they write it down and are reminded...it's a loss cause. Many are thankful for the tip, though. In the end, a Stop sign with "Stop" inside would be great...just to the right of the Open button and to the left of the thumbnail button. Perfect placement.

Like many of us have noted, this would be huge for the end-users.

a stop button that actually works would be nice yes ;-)

With the way that multi-threading has been implemented in the client having a button may just not work as it will be locked like the rest of the UI. Keyboard on the other hand is on a different interrupt. Still I think it may be worth exposing this function to regular users through a button.

@Matt (4) I'm in the same position. 'Break' is probably a banned word @ Cupertino :)

Oh, yes. Particularly for us Mac users

Yeah, definitely for Mac users.

This idea is surely a no-brainer... why would anyone demote??

@7 - I'm a little bit agreeing here. It's a big difference if the result of pushing the STOP button is canceling a
- view refresh/opening
- UI rendering
- doc or Attachment opening
or if it's breaking a script doing
- calculation
- updates
- data shuffling in- or out of Notes
- etc.
How about if this (functioning) button was paired with an event of Ctrl-Break/STOP in the programming model so the 'graceful handling' in code would be possible?

I haven't tested it with CTRL-BREAK, but in Lotusscript we have a Terminate event which should be used to handle code exits gracefully.