You must be doing something wrong because I've used it countless times. Here's an example script that shows how to use it:
Code:
dialog test-parent {
  title "Parent dialog"
  size -1 -1 172 112
  option dbu
  button "Open a modal dialog", 1, 55 48 67 12
}
dialog test-child {
  title "Modal child dialog"
  size -1 -1 121 58
  option dbu
  text "Access parent dialog, if you can!", 1, 7 8 106 9, center
  button "OK", 2, 37 34 47 12, ok
}
on *:dialog:test-parent:sclick:1: return $dialog(test-child,test-child,-4)

Type
/dialog -m test-parent test-parent
or
/dialog -md test-parent test-parent

/.timerQ 1 0 echo /.timerQ 1 0 $timer(Q).com