Re: Common Save Confirmation Dialogue



On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 15:48 +0100, Marc O'Morain wrote:
> On 5/12/05, Gustavo J. A. M. Carneiro <gjc inescporto pt> wrote:
> >   Even SDI applications usually support multiple windows served by the
> > same process, where File->Exit quits the application by closing all
> > windows.  Since each window contains one document, on File->Exit you may
> > have to confirm saving multiple documents.  And it's annoying to have to
> > confirm saving documents several times in sequence.
> 
> Hi Gustavo,
> 
> Applications that support multiple documents in the one process (such
> as GIMP) are actually MDIs.

  I believe the HIG calls GIMP-like applications controlled mdi, or
controlled sdi, or something like that... 

>  An example of a true SDI is something like
> Inkscape or GPDF.

  OK, but:
	1. Fire Inkscape
	2. Draw something on the blank document
	3. Click on "Create New Document"
	4. Draw something on the new document
	5. Activate File->Exit

  Then you get two confirmation dialogues in sequence, from the same SDI
(you said it yourself) application.  I think Single Document Interface
means you have one document per window, but it doesn't mean an
application cannot have several windows open.  And of course File->Exit
should quit the application, meaning all windows have to be closed.

  That being said, I'm no longer sure myself whether multiple
confirmation dialogs, one per window, is preferable, or a single
confirmation dialog with checkboxes for documents is better.  I'll defer
judgement to the usability guys.


>  If a common save dialogue is implemented in GTK,
> these pseudo-MDI applications are still free to implement their own
> application specific widget.
> 
> The point of adding this would be to replace all the code in SDI
> applications that have a save confirmation dialogue box with a single
> GTK call. Removing code from applications like this makes them faster
> and easier to write, easier to read and maintain, and the binary would
> be smaller. I don't know how this would affect the GTK binary -
> whether the save confirmation code would be shared across running
> applications or loaded once per application.

  The main point of this is not saving duplicated code size; more
important is UI consistency across desktop applications.  The best way
to achieve consistency is of course to have a single implementation, as
GtkMessageDialog shows.

  Regards.

-- 
Gustavo J. A. M. Carneiro
<gjc inescporto pt> <gustavo users sourceforge net>
The universe is always one step beyond logic.

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