Re: [gtk-list] Re: MDI?

[Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds kjahds com>]

On Thu, 14 May 1998, KC5TJA wrote:

> > because i'm talking about a menu that has "window-in-window" and
> > "notebook" options for the MDI window.
> 
> Sorry, but I'm just not following you.  What window-in-window options
> would be different from notebook options?  If you give a sample menu, I
> might be able to better glimpse what you have in mind.  If, however,
> you're talking about the ability to detach notebook pages and make them
> separate windows, I think that should go into the notebook widget, since
> that'd be a REALLY useful item for any notebook widget!  :-)  It's right
> up there with pinnable menus... :D

The point about MDI is that the separate windows are _inside_, (corralled,
if you will) the main application window. If they are shrunk to icons,
those icons appear in the main app window, etc. Basically, _everybody_
(including MS, who invented this thing) seems to agree that this is all a
rather bad idea, and for X in particular it would be a miserable idea,
unless you could figure out some way of letting the window manager manage
the sub-window. (That in itself might be fairly neat.)

The one variant that has been invented (again, by MS) that does make some
sense is the VB 5 approach, which replaces the sub-window manager with a
tiled window manager. (Which isn't too easy to describe. Think something
like the Paned widgets, but where you can rearrange the panes. Also think
Windows 1.0 :-)

I don't see any reason why this can't all be treated as a general
mechanism: have something called a "Page", that can be placed into a
notebook, "ripped" out of the notebook into a separate (top-level) 
window, or managed by some other system (like an tiled or MDI, yuck, Page
manager.)

While we are on the topic of "ripping things out", I'd love to see an
extension of the HandleBox that allows you to dock things anywhere, not
just in its "home base". 

-- 
Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com, CIS: 70705,126)