Re: A try at GNOME MDI

[Jim Pick <jim jimpick com>]

robert havoc pennington <rhpennin@midway.uchicago.edu> writes:

> Wouldn't this abstraction be the same one needed for Jim Pick's "buffers" 
> idea? i.e., documents shouldn't directly handle their own windows and
> menus (and perhaps dialogs).

That was my thinking - MDI (as used by Windows) and the emacs buffers are
just GUI front-end for a Model-View-Controller (or something like that)
back-end.

If we inserted a level of abstraction into there - we could have a
"pluggable" front-end.  Some people might choose MDI (not me), or they
might choose an emacs-style buffer thing, or overlapping windows, or
even some much improved interface.

All the GUI systems I have looked at lack an abstraction level at this
point - so there hasn't been a lot of experimentation with
"buffer/window management" (or whatever you want to call it) at this
level.

I'd like to see multiple buffer presentation style supported - which
one is used would be controlled by the parent app/container.  Some
apps (like emacs) would give the user programmatic control (via hooks)
over which one to use.

I believe that Mozilla's frames, and the panes in Midnight commander
also could benefit from having a pluggable/programmable front-end.

Cheers,

 - Jim

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