Re: Is there any document centred application framework done for Gnome?

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

[ More stuff on MDI ]

Steve> Therefore, I propose a compromise (It starts to get tricky
Steve> here):

Steve> First: Have applications that use multiple windows map their
Steve> windows to toplevel and adhere to X standards (i.e., set the
Steve> client leader).

Steve> Second: Have the gnome window manager give the user the choice
Steve> of reparenting all of the windows for a given application
Steve> inside of _one_ window, with appropriate GDI-like decorations.

Steve> This way users get GDI iff they want it, it's handled by the
Steve> window manager itself, and the whole thing is a cool hack. :)

Steve> Comments?

I don't think this will really work, at least not if the goal is to
duplicate MS-style MDI.  The problem is that with MDI the containing
window has a global menu for all the sub-windows.  With your scheme
this wouldn't be doable without an extra communications layer.

Also, I generally am against pushing more functionality into the
window manager.  I want us to require as little from the wm as
possible.


If Jaka (or somebody) wants to implement MS-style MDI, I won't fight
it.  I might even encourage it, given that some people seem to like
it.

I think the Right Approach is to design the widgets (as Jaka calls
them, the "Roo" and "Pouch" widgets) so that any mode can be
supported.  Then it becomes a question for the internals of the
particular widgets -- and, importantly, something I can configure
globally.  As I mentioned the last time this thread came up, this is a
bit trickier than it first appears (given the menubar), but I believe
Jaka hit on an interesting solution (also from the last time this came
up, a week or two ago).


More generally, however, I'm against MDI.  It frustrates me too much
when I use it on Windows.  Plus, as other people have pointed out, MDI
is application-centric and not document-centric.

Does anybody else think that MDI is a hack to make Windows more like
the Mac (maximize the MDI window and it's just like the older Mac
interface)?  That's my impression.

Last, I think there's some interesting stuff in "About Face" about how
evil MDI is.  It's been a while, though, so I might be confused.
"About Face" is definitely worth the read, even if it is very
MS-centric.

Tom