Author: Alessandro Scotti
Date: 08:41:28 10/07/05
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On October 07, 2005 at 11:18:54, Tord Romstad wrote: >>As for the more general question, my guess is that most Window users >>will opt for the single window containing multiple child windows (the >>MDI solution). > >Judging from the other replies in this thread, it seems you are >right. I am surprised to learn that this is a common way to design >a GUI program (at least in the Windows world). As I wrote elsewhere, >the only such GUI I have ever seen was an old Linux version of Maple, >which I found really awful. Hi Tord, please add my vote against MDI too! :-) When implemented in the "classical" way, I find it terrible at best. However, since a few years we've another paradigm that offers the best of the two worlds (SDI and MDI), i.e. dockable windows. Taking Scatha GUI for example, you would be able to click say on the move list window and drag it away from its place: it will then become a "floating" windows. Then, you can drag it towards specific areas of the main window (typically, the edges) and it will "dock" there, becoming part of the main window again. This allows you great freedom to rearrange the window layout, and of course you also get to choose what windows are visible. With the latest libraries it is also possible to dock several windows in the exact same place, and if so then a "tab" automatically appears to allow switching between those. Even when windows are floating, making all behave coherently is quite important IMHO, or at least allow a very easy (max one-click) way to restore the original layout (e.g. in Shredder case: I move the board window then all other windows move to restore the relative position they had in the beginning).
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