Re: window-in-window MDI

[Mo McKinlay <mmckinlay labs interopen org>]

# Dude. You think this is a good idea?
# 
# http://pluton.ijs.si/~jaka/mdi/mdi-wiw.png
 
  [ snip ]

# I am surprised.

Plenty of people want it, and nobody's come up with a better
implementation. Plus, just because the code's not hugely brilliant at the
moment, doesn't mean it'll never improve.

I myself find WiW MDI useful in some situations. Sometimes it's nice to
have all the windows of an application contained within a parent with no
distracting wallpaper, icons, or anything else. Microsoft may have moved
away from WiW MDI for things like Word, Excel, and so on - because each
document is separate, it makes sense for the user to treat them as such.
Other applications, like for example, integrated development
environments, where all the document windows are related and each performs
a specific task (a toolbox, a form designer, source code window, project
manager, etc), it's nice to have at least the option to "tie them
together". If you pay attention to Microsoft's products, you'll notice
that newer versions of Visual Basic default to MDI instead of "controlled
SDI" - with this type of application, many people find WiW MDI preferable,
and /less/ confusing.

-- 
Mo McKinlay                                T: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x1
Chief Software Architect                   F: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x3
inter/open                                 E: mmckinlay@labs.interopen.org
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