The highlighted box "UNDERSTANDING THE RESPONDER CHAIN" implies to me that if I click (I'm talking simulator here) on the label, the keyboard should be dismissed. No such thing happens on my machine (it just sits there), and I don't had a "real" device on which to check it out. Is this just a simulator issue?

And why does Apple call it a Simulator, and Android call it an Emulator?

I don't have this edition of the book but a previous edition had a description of the responder chain after a program that is the same as "Keyboard Inputs" which is in Chapter 6 of this book (based on the downloadable source code). In that program touching the label dismisses the keyboard. What is the name of the project you are testing this in? The projects in Chapter 5 do not have the same design as the one in Chapter 6 (i.e. the label in the myiPhone app does not have a delegate or superview that will respond to a touch within the label's bounds, since the label has no actions) If the project you are testing the behavior in has a design similar to the Keyboard Inputs project the keyboard will dismiss.

For the unresolved discussion of emulator versus simulator check out:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2...and-simulation

Bob

and yes, it's the KeyboardInputs program, and it is after implementing the enhancements that are described on pp128-132 that the behavior occurs, ie the keyboard is NOT dismissed when I click on the "Alphanumeric Input" label. It is dismissed when I click anywhere else on the screen.

As I said, this is on the simulator; I don't have a real device on which to test. So might this be a simulator issue? Alternatively, what might I have set up incorrectly that produces this behavior?

Again, apologies for the confusion and advance thanks for any insight.

The "button" background definitely fills the entire view?

Bob

for some reason I had placed the round rect button so that its upper limit was just below the label, so it wasn't getting dismissed anywhere above that: the label, the area to the right of the label, the area above the label. thanks for your hint which made me look at my .xib a little more carefully.

love the simplicity of this explanation of emulator vs simulator:

The Simulator tries to duplicate the behavior of the device.
The Emulator tries to duplicate the inner workings of the device.