Re: window-in-window MDI

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt btinternet com>]

* Mo McKinlay (mmckinlay@labs.interopen.org) wrote:
> 
> # There are better implementations everywhere. The tabbed notebook MDI
> # that GNOME *already has*. The kind of mdi used by apps such as borland
> # builder and the gimp. (One main application window with multiple toplevel
> # document windows.
> 
> Hold on a second, back up.
> 
> When I said better implementation, I wasn't referring to MDI, I was
> referring to WiW MDI. Maybe people don't like the tabbed notebook MDI?
> Maybe people don't like having windows scattered all around the desktop as
> the GIMP does?

There *is* no good implementation of WiW MDI. It is fundamentally
flawed. It wastes screen space and confuses users. Especially under X.
 
> # These are great solutions, and can of course be coupled with the
> # window grouping available in current window managers.
> 
> So what you're saying is...you can get almost the same effects using other
> methods, so why bother?

Pretty much. If you can do the same stuff without breaking everything,
why break everything?

> # Best of all, they don't break everything, like this one does.
> 
> I fail to see how WiW MDI "breaks everything".

Then you didn't read the list in my last message.
 
> # You didn't tackle *any* of the points I made. You can't blame "code
> # which will be improved". The points I made are intractable with this
> # design.
> 
> Your points pretty much centered around you not liking how it looks. What
> you FAIL to see is that others DO like how it looks, and how it works.

No they didn't. It was about look and *feel*. I mentioned button
location, keybindings, actions etc. That's not looks.

> # Just because a few users think they want something doesn't mean it has
> # to be provided. Especially when it is Wrong.
> 
> Forget that last sentence and you might have a point. "Especially when it
> is Wrong" is no kind of reasoning.

No? I think it is. GNOME has always been about doing cool things with
software, not implementing fundamentally flawed designs to please a
small minority.

Tom.
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