Question

I am developing and running my Java application on OS X Mountain Lion, and I added “Yes” and “No” options to a custom dialog box. However, when I ran my application on Windows 7, I noticed that the “Yes” and “No” options were reversed. To fix this UI glitch, I added this code:

    String msg = "Are you sure you want to cancel the selected bookings?";
    String[] options = new String[] { "Yes", "No" };
    int noOption = 1;
    String os = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();
    if ("mac os x".equals(os)) {
      options = new String[] { "No", "Yes" };
      noOption = 0;
    }

    int option =
        JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(null, msg, "Confirm Unbooking",
            JOptionPane.OK_CANCEL_OPTION, JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null, options,
            options[noOption]);
    if (option == noOption) {
      return;
    }

Can someone tell me why I experienced the issue that I described in the first place? I have a feeling that it has to do with the L&F of the application. Thanks!

Answer 1

It is indeed a L&F feature that performs this (this is not a UI glitch). I would recommend not to change that for a better user-experience. Users expect application to be consistent on a platform. Windows & Linux are used to have buttons displayed from left to right, while MacOS are used to have buttons displayed from right to left.

See here two samples:

Windows:

MacOS:

See how on MacOS, the most important button is displayed on the far right, while it is the opposite on Windows.