Re: window-in-window MDI

[Paul Warren <pdw ferret lmh ox ac uk>]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2000, Jaka Mocnik wrote:
> Mo McKinlay wrote:

> > - It requires WM support in order to function
> no, it doesn't.

That depends how it is implemented.  If you want the child windows to be
decorated and managed by the WM then it does.  If you want to go for the
application-decorated approach then it doesn't, but your then have a
completely different look and feel for child windows and for top level
windows.  For example, you might have your WM using focus-follows-mouse,
but the WiW MDI would be click-to-focus.

The WiW thing has been thrashed to death on the wm-spec list. The
conclusion was that if you want to do WiW properly (as in not like
StarOffice) then you need cooperation from the WM, and as most of the WM
authors hate WiW they can't be bothered to implement it, let alone write a
standardised spec for it.  Mattias Ettrich from KDE did intend to
implement it, but I think that he realised that seeing as no other WMs
were going to cooperate, Qt would have to implement both approaches to WiW
- one for co-operative WMs and one for the rest.

Paul