Re: window-in-window MDI

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 06:01:17PM -0500, James M. Cape wrote:
> Ok, how about it being a poor interface?
> 
> We in the Hit Squad are expected to suggest interface improvements, but
> we cannot do that if steps backward (like including a mode I have yet to
> see a decent arguement for) are constantly being taken. A good interface
> should be consistent, and provide the user with the most efficient and
> easy-to-deduce means of accomplishing their task. I have yet to find
> anyone who can use MDI as efficiently as SDI or Notebook-style MDI, and
> that seems reason enough to avoid it -- even if one doesn't buy the
> technical- and appearance-based reasons not to (X doesn't support it,
> themes are not inheirited, window controls/looks/behaviors don't match,
> it forces all windows to further limit the available desktop size,
> etc.).

People are different.  There are people who believe it makes them work
faster.  Actually good arguments for I've seen are

  1) makes it easier to separate the windows with documents from the rest of
     the windows
  2) the individual windows don't have their own toolbar/menu , but that is
     only on the main menu thus saving some space in some configurations
  3) it is easier to find minimized windows of the mdi since they are in the
     container window, rather then hunting for them in the tasklist

The biggest thing however is to allow each user to use what he feels most
comfortable with.  Forcing users to do things a certain way just because you
feel like that's a "BetterWayToDoIt(tm)" is not too nice.

So as long as it's not the default but something the user must expend effort
towards turning it on, it's ok by me.

There are people who like w-i-w so much that they will put it in their apps
anyway.  This way they'll use gnomemdi and we will be spared of being forced
onto their own implementation of w-i-w.  If gnome-libs allow more choice of
the ui/semantics, more people will use it, thus more applications will be
consistent since they will follow the same settings, semantics and defaults.

George