GNOME 2: MDI or SDI?

slestak at cavtel.net slestak at cavtel.net
Mon Jun 7 10:16:18 EDT 2004


> I, on the other hand, despise the SDI way that GnuCash behaves, and
> would much rather tabs than separate windows.
>
> 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.
>
> John P. New
> London, Ontario, Canada
>
> 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
>>
I have much the same pain as John.  "Despise" is prob too strong a word
for my thoughts on it.  My main Gnucash usage is w X forwarding to my
living room pc where I Have a smaller (17") monitor.  When I'm doing
mid-month entry, SDI seems clunky.  I typically dont have a need for the
Accounts list until I am done with the account I am working on.  Having it
available to the window manager leaves a lot of variability in how you
skip windows.    It would seem to me that the current account/report
needed could be on focus, and easily recalled regardless of whether your
using Gnome, KDE, *box, etc.



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