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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Duplicated efforts and consistency (SDI/MDI in konq, konsole etc. ...)
From:       Rik Hemsley <rik () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-03-13 8:35:23
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#if Dave Leigh

> Some projects, like the GIMP or WordPerfect attempt to use a master window.  
> One only has to look at the GIMP to see what kind of UI Hell this can 
> produce... throwing all kinds of shit all over the screen, allowing the user 
> to obscure menus and dialogs, splitting functionality between invisible menus 
> only accessible by right-clicking the document and a tantalizing central menu 
> that the user EXPECTS to use to access this functionality, but which is 
> actually useful for next to nada.

Personally I like the GIMP interface. Having menus available on a mouse
click, and related only to the window you're working on, is great. I can
access menu items much faster than if I'd had to move the mouse to the
top of the window. I know that the menu relates to the document I'm
editing.

They have made some mistakes too, like making the layers+channels dialog
dynamic, so when you switch documents, you don't get another
layers+channels dialog, the existing one changes to show the layer
information for the 'current' document. _That_ is broken and a good
example of why MDI is confusing.

Apart from small MDI-style 'features' like that, the GIMP's interface
is just perfect IMO. As for the central menu, well, that menu and
the attached toolbox are merely a set of tools that can be used
globally. They aren't dependent on the 'current' document. That's
fine with me. I understood it from day one.

People complain about ksirc's interface, well, the reason that ksirc
is tricky to understand is because it does some weird confusing stuff
like quitting the app when you close the last channel window. The
'control' window shouldn't close when you are finished 'editing
documents.' It's a global 'toolbox', like the gimp's.

If annoying behaviour such as that was fixed, ksirc would be great,
and I think people would stop saying that IRC should have an MDI
interface.

Rik

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