Re: Some questions raised by 131010

["Gustavo J. A. M. Carneiro" <gjc inescporto pt>]

On Tue, 2004-11-23 at 00:37 +0100, Raphael Bosshard wrote:
> Application Or Document Centric Interface?
> 
> There is a bug filed in bugzilla (131010, filed by me).
> 
> The bug is about a rather simple thing: Should Epiphany display display
> the favicons of the webpage or should Epiphany display it's own icon.
> 
> This would be a no-brainer if Epiphany were just a webbrowser (Just let
> the devs do whatever they want). But Epiphany is the default webbrowser
> for GNOME, and so this questions touches another, more fundamental
> question; Should GNOME applications be application centric or should
> they be document centric.
> 
> (If you don't know what if these two terms mean; application centric:
> think windows, document centric: think macos. This example is not so
> good anymore as it used to be, but it works)
> 
> Currenty GNOME is neither. Most GTK applications tend to be application
> centric, though.
> 
> 
> A little bit outside the scope of this mail is another thing: What type
> of interface should GNOME applications use: a multi window interface
> like the GIMP or a single window interface, like Inkscape? There seem to
> be no recommendations about this toppic.
> 
> I reckon that multi window interfaces are more flexible, especially when
> working with multiple monitors. While it seems to work on MacOS (raising
> all windows of one application when focusing one window, menubar at the
> top of the screen... as Ken Harris said: A usability/design discussion
> about this would be nice) it feels rather awkward for GNOME.

  I think a one document per window is fine.  Using tabs is fine too.
But please, stop the gimp/dia/sodipodi madness.

  By default there should be a one-to-one mapping of windows to
documents.  It's a very simple rule, easy for users and developers.
Just stop using windows as floating toolbars.  It's just too confusing,
not matter how useful people with 3 3000x2000 screens think it is, the
rest of us with a single 1024x768 screen think it sucks.  For instance,
_every time_ I start Dia I have to waste a few seconds adjusting the
toolbar and document window positions and sizes.  If it were a single
window with a toolbar, I could just press the 'maximize' button or
keyboard shortcut and get on with my work.

  Regards.

-- 
Gustavo J. A. M. Carneiro
<gjc inescporto pt> <gustavo users sourceforge net>
The universe is always one step beyond logic