Re: another try at how to handle "multiple documents"

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

Jaka> This is ANOTHER, configurable try at a Document/View model.
Jaka> Don't get put away by the fact that the thing is called MDI,
Jaka> actually the MFC-like MDI does not even work yet.

Jaka> 	http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0026/soft.html#GMDI

I took a look at this.  Overall I have to say that it is pretty cool.
Being able to drag the notebook pages around is really neat.


Jaka> The MS-like MDI does not work right now (this would require a
Jaka> lot of work on the widgets and anyway most people seem to
Jaka> dislike it ;)).

I think it would be worth the effort to design the API so that
MS-style MDI could be later added as an option.  While I personally
hate MS MDI, some people do apparently like it.  If the API were
designed to support it from the beginning, then presumably we could
add support for it without disturbing any actual application.


One thing to think about: what will happen when there are a large
number of documents?  E.g., I frequently have Emacs running with 50 or
60 buffers (sometimes more).  This won't scale well to notebook pages.


Should the "roo" class be a subclass of GnomeApp?  The idea here is
that certain kinds of applications are "document applications" and
would instantiation GnomeMDIRoo instead of GnomeApp.


Many of the issues raised by MDI will also need to be confronted when
we design the full document model.  I think this code might provide a
useful testbed for ideas.  That is, my hope is that it will ensure we
won't make mistakes in the document model, since we'll have learned
from MDI.

Tom