On Sat, 27 Feb 2010, David W Noon wrote:
On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:18:09 +0100, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote about
Re: [Lazarus] debug windows layout:
Graeme Geldenhuys schrieb:
>> All this docking talk is nice and everything, but sometimes I ask
>> if shouldn't just go SDI for Lazarus IDE. I found it odd at the
>> beginning, but after using several other SDI IDEs now I can't find
>> reasoning in Delphi-old MDI...
>
> I think you meant other way round. :-) Old Delphi 7 and earlier used
> SDI interface by default.
No, that's neither MDI nor SDI.
Actually, Graeme is correct.
Each of the discrete windows contains a single "document", so it is
called a Single Document Interface.
> MDI (multi-document interface) is one big
> outer window with multiple other windows embedded inside that parent
> window. Most IDE's seem to go the MDI route.
That's called SDI, not MDI. A single window contains frames, filling
the entire window. It's like everything docked into a single
application window, and some IDEs actually allows to undock some
frames.
Again, Graeme is correct.
The outer container window contains multiple documents, each managed
by an inner window -- hence Multiple Document Interface. Each inner
window is called an "MDI child", and the container window is the "MDI
parent". The MDI children can be maximized (within the MDI parent) and
minimized independently; they can also be either tiled or cascaded.
Your term "docked" seems to be a reference to tiled MDI children.
If you have a copy of Visual BASIC 6 handy, you can switch that IDE
between MDI and SDI to see this effect. [Earlier versions of VB were
SDI only for the IDE, but could easily produce MDI or SDI apps.]
Back in the late 1980s, when IBM and Microsoft were both involved with
OS/2 development, both companies came to the conclusion that MDI
sucked. This was because one cannot get through to one's desktop
without minimizing, or at least shrinking, the MDI parent, thus losing
display of all documents simultaneously. More than 20 years on, this
problem remains with MDI, but software companies still produce MDI
applications. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. ... :-(
The problem you mention exists with SDI in a worse form. Now I must
click away N windows before I get to the desktop. Which is why most
task-panels have a button 'Show the desktop'...
So I think this is largely a matter of preference. I much prefer MDI over SDI.
I use a database product. One day it switched from MDI to SDI,
using a tabbed window approach as in browsers: "a more modern look".
The product simply became unusable. And the whole company here feels
like that.
So I wrote my own.
Michael.
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