Re: [gtk-list] Re: return of the MDI

[Erik Mouw <J A K Mouw its tudelft nl>]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2000 12:38:27 +0000, David Given wrote:
> [...]
>>I agree with this (and most of the arguments against WiW MDI), but I
>>was wondering how hard it would be to implement what Photoshop calls
>>pallettes. Little tool windows that float on top within the MDI. The way
>>I would love these things is to be "float on top" whenever a normal
>>window of the app is raised, and also be 'sticky' (visible on all
>>desktops).
> 
> Sticky? God, no!

[...]

>>Imagine GIMP for instance. When I have 2 images open, both on a
>>different desktop, I would want the Layers dialog (or any other tool I
>>have open within gimp) to be on each desktop. Now this is pretty easy to
>>do I guess with WM hints. But to be honest I would want those tool
>>windows to be present only on the desktops where I have images. Or (to
>>take it a but further) only be visible when an image has focus.
> 
> See what I mean?

FWIW: 4Dwm (the window manager that ships with SGI IRIX) has a nice
compromise between sticky and non-sticky windows: it allows you to stick a
window only to a limited number of desktops. I don't know if there are
other window managers that can do this trick.


Erik
[who happens to hate WiW MDI, too]

PS: Did you notice that M$ dropped the WiW MDI in at least one of their
    products? Internet Explorer uses multiple toplevel windows.

-- 
There is a style of design I call "wishful thinking engineering. It starts
with something like "pigs can fly if you feed them enough beans" and develops
utopian plans such as like having everyone commute to work riding on personal
pigs, and along the way ignores minor details such as the consequent rain of
the non-gaseous byproducts. -- Vernon Schryver in n.a.n-a.e