[Usability] Multi-Window programs and saving state

[Daniel Brodie <daniel brodienet com>]

I would like to know what the correct behavior is for applications which
have multiple windows of document-like views and want to save the state
(size and state of internal widgets, like paned widgets) of the windows.

>From a little testing it seems that evince, gedit, and eog, though
differ slightly in exactly what they save, behave the same way about the
saving of those settings and applying them to the window/app. The
changes are applied to gconf immediatly, but applied to the window only
when it is shown. This makes sense for some settings, like the size of
the sidepane. When you are resizing the sidepane for one window you do
not expect it to resize for all of the other windows at the same time.

I am asking because I have some simmilar settings in my app and I wanted
to make sure what the correct way is.

Thanks,
Daniel