Re: Can GTK+ create a GtkWindow in a GtkWindow?

[Paul Davis <paul linuxaudiosystems com>]

On Tue, 2008-09-09 at 18:41 +0100, Rob Pearce wrote:
> On Tuesday 09 September 2008, John Hobbs wrote:
> > If you want MDI use the Notebook widget.  But be aware of what you are
> > doing, from the gnome HIG document [1] "MDI has several inherent usability
> > problems, so its use is discouraged in applications."
> 
> The developers of GTK generally dislike MDI, and repeatedly put forth reasons 
> why it's bad. What they never seem to grasp is that all their reasons are 
> based on the assumption that what you're doing is opening several independent 
> and unconnected documents in an editor-like environment. 

no, the single most important assumption in the argument against MDI is
that the user already has a powerful, configurable and suitably flexible
way to manage multiple windows in their window manager. it therefore
follows that replicating all the code needed to manage window position,
size, shape and communication in each and every application that wants
to do MDI is unnecessary, wasteful and possibly dangerous.

precis: fix your WM to do what you need, don't build a WM into your app.

--p