Re: window-in-window MDI

["Sergio A. Kessler" <ser perio unlp edu ar>]

Derek Simkowiak <dereks@kd-dev.com> el día Thu, 16 Mar 2000 11:12:56 -0800 
(PST), escribió:

>> Why offer people the choice to use bad UI?
>
>1) Some people actually like it (even one person on this list admitted
>it:)

so what ?  it's irrelevant, you can _always_ found a person that like
           whatever thing.

>2) It does no harm (at least, that's the assumption us proponents have
>been working under)

yes, it's harms, see below ...

>3) Most importantly: if a company has a multi-window-UI-based software
>product under Windows, and they want to "port" it to Gnome, it becomes
>very easy to do.  Alternatively, if this UI does *not* exist under Gnome,
>the company will be forced to re-think their UI, thus making the
>conversion process non-trivial.

it easy to port under another MDI style (like tabbed notebooks)...

>	The same principal applies to people cloning existing win32 apps.
>Translating MSFC-based scrollbars, buttons, etc. into their Gtk+/Gnome
>counterparts is very easy.  All you need to do is find the right Gtk+
>widget and lay it out correctly.  "Mapping" one MDI-based interface to
>another is not quite as easy.

win32 doesn't uses logical layout as gtk, there is no 1<->1 relation.

>	Finally, the end-users who wish to use these ported (or cloned)
>applications will want a UI they are familiar with--even if it could be
>improved upon.  Saying "here, learn this new UI, it's better (trust us)"
>would cause more harm than having one extra MDI option.

it will harm MUCH more if users found a program that uses a style of 
MDI, another uses another style, and so on ...

>a) it sucks, so leave it out

it's sucks ...

>b) it does no harm, but might do (a little bit) good, so put it in

it DOES harm to users.


Sergio