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List:       kde-look
Subject:    GUI basics
From:       Thomas Zander <zander () xs4all ! nl>
Date:       1999-09-16 19:18:37
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Hi,

In this message I want to state some facts which I believe confuse a lot
of people here.
After which I want to make some conclusions, lets see how they agree with the
web pages we have all read already!

Please don't respond with opinions about the facts part, only reply if I made
a mistake (not impossible!), the facts are not open for discussion, they are
what we all have to use. And please read the whole lot before hitting the
reply button...


Facts:

KDE uses a windows based interface. You can always move a window to show
another one, or to show the background. There are special cases like the kpanel,
but these are not document-centric, and therfore not discussed here.

When you open a window you do so for a task you had in mind: reading mail,
typing a letter or simply looking at xload.
Every window has a specific task and/or document. You can have two 
mail-readers open, which will imply that you have two windows open.
One window per document. Or put the same fact the other way around: not more
then one document per window. This is something X-windows restricts us to. We
have to accept that. This is called the single document interface.

The above said something about windows, I have not said anything about
applications.
X-windows is window based, there is nothing to show that window A belongs to
the same application as window B.
With the added flexibility of virtual desktops, it is widely appreciated
that one application does not have more than one document, and therefore
more than one window. If it did, exiting the application would close both
windows. This is something that could be done, but is not done in KDE.

Please note that this implies a different look upon the term application, a
look forced by the X-windows system!

Applications have no more that one window or document.
(read the 'But' some further on!)

Let me stress this point because this causes a lot of problems! Every window is
it's own application. It has to be, if it were not how would you keep all of
those windows together! And closing your mail-reader should not close the email
you are typing. The different windows have become separate applications.


As soon as you except this you will see: (end facts part)

A window is the same as an application, from a GUI p.o.v.;
A document is the picture, text, email or mp3 you have opened, there can be
more then one window showing the document, but not more than one window showing
the document.

Open -> opens a document in the current window
New -> open a new window.
Close -> closes the document, leaving the window and the application empty. 
Quit -> quits the application by closing the window
X -> closes the window.

the X and the Quit are the same action because the both close the window, and
therefor close the application.

The Close is one step short of closing the window. It leaves it empty (if
possible). The question would off course be 'what good is an empty window'
Therefore in a lot of cases close would close the window as well. 

That statement will give some people the shivers. Normal work flow would be,
when you are ready editing a document, to close the document with the close
option. Then what? You could start editing a new document after a 'new
document' or you could open an existing document from disk. Last but not least
you could close the window.
All of these options could have been done without using the close button. Think
about it. We don't have a multi document environment, no Boss-window which will
spawn a new window if we say open. closing the document will probably close the
window.

Are you reading this in kmail? Double click this mail in the top-right frame.
A new window will appear. Now select file->close in the original Mail client.
It closes the window. What else would it do? It leaves the mail you are still
reading open, what else would you expect?


And now on to the next subject please!
There are a dozen more subjects waiting to be thought trough.           



the big But:
I would vote for helper-windows. They are not document based, but contain
information about the document. Think about the palettes on windows and Mac OS.
These windows do not follow the above mentioned behaviour; the don't contain a
document. The helper windows could for example only show up if the document is
used. Think about dreamweaver for that behaviour.  But that is not what this
discussion is about, this is a more-for-later.

    --

Thomas Zander                                              zander@earthling.net
Today, it's understood that of course you'll use a computer,
because it makes other people's lives easier -- or, more         icq: 970 00 05
accurately, it enables them to maintain their manic pace.      gpg-key:  0588D5

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