GNOME 2: MDI or SDI?

[Derek Atkins]

FWIW, I like the way 1.8 does it...  Account registers are their own
window, and reports are either in a tab or a new window based on user
preference.  We should retain this option.

The next step, of course, is providing users the choice of having
account windows in their own window or a tab.  Different people seem
to like different ways of doing it.  Personally I like the 1.8
behavior and I'd like to see the g2 port continue that way.

I'll note that we don't necessarily need to use "MDI" per se..  The
secondary windows are not standalone -- if you exit the app, all
windows get closed.

But whether accounts or reports are opened as tabs or new windows
should be a user option like it is in 1.8.  Just my $1.02.

-derek

Christian Neumair <chris at gnome-de.org> writes:

> Am Mo, den 07.06.2004, 8:16 Uhr -0400 schrieb John P. New:
>> I, on the other hand, despise the SDI way that GnuCash behaves, and
>> would much rather tabs than separate windows.
>
> The GNOME 2 branch uses such an MDI design. I think it sucks. You can
> check out the GNOME 2 branch yourself and play around a bit.
>
>> I find that when I am working with Gnucash, I have other applications
>> open at the same time. Mozilla to view multiple bank sites (all in their
>> own tabs, by the way), OpenOffice spreadsheets that calculate anything
>> from gas and electric bills to business expenses (and again, while there
>> are several instances of OpenOffice running, each spreadsheet has
>> multiple tabs of information). Unfortunately, the Gnucsh windows get all
>> mixed up amongst these other applications, making navigation between
>> accounts somewhat of a pain. I cringe at the confusion that would result
>> if Mozilla and OpenOffice didn't support tabs.
>> I was hoping that someone would eventually see the light (well, my
>> light, anyway :-) ) and design GnuCash to use MDI for account windows.
>
> It's a matter of smart window management.
>
> regs,
>  Chris
>
>> On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 04:26, Christian Neumair wrote:
>> > We've not yet made a decision whether we ought to use MDI or SDI for the
>> > GNOME 2 port, which is a fundamental decision. In my opinion, we should
>> > in no way mix them, because that heavily confuses users. We need to open
>> > accounts in new windows anyway, and opening reports in the same window
>> > is weird, because it is inconsistent with the rest of GnuCash. Plus,
>> > notebook tabs occupy space. That's why I propose to use exlusively SDI,
>> > i.e. accounts, reports and all the other thingies are fired up in new
>> > windows instead of in new tabs. That would mean removal of the plugin
>> > page concept. Instead, we have action/task-specific windows.
>> > Comments, suggestions?
>> > 
>> > regs,
>> >  Chris
>> > 
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>> 
>> 
>
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available