[gtk-list] Re: MDI?

[Nimrod Zimerman <zimerman earthling net>]

On Sat, May 16, 1998 at 11:15:49PM -0700, George wrote:

> > Whenever the application is raised (the window manager decides that), the
> > dialog should be raised above the main window, so as never to be hidden by
> > it.
> 
> this is bad ... bad bad bad ... IMO at least ... except for very special
> cases (such as a panel) an application should not do such stuff ..
> it gets very annoying ...

But, what else can you do?
You do need to let the user know the file doesn't exist (say), and you do
need to do that in a window (because there is no other way). Unless you make
sure the window doesn't start floating around beneath other windows, you are
going to make the user very annoyed. This, at least, is the way I feel.

It supposedly can be done, because that's the way Netscape implements the
'Find' window. It isn't modal, but it can't go beneath the main window.
Can it be done in gtk?

> I don't think that decorated windows inside windows are such a good idea
> in the first place ... but all of X is windows inside windows, most
> widgets are windows ... an "MDI" application in X usually puts the
> windows directly on the desktop ... which makes it all exactly as
> usefull as an MDI, but you can also see other windows, you can put
> specific windows on other desktops ... etc etc ....

Oh, the idea of MDI, I feel, isn't limited to windows inside windows. The
concept is more important. I find MDI very convenient, and don't really
understand the strong feelings against it here.

                                                   Nimrod