MDI kind

[Alex Tweedly]

At 13:06 09/08/2004 -0400, Troy Rollins wrote:


>On Aug 9, 2004, at 12:20 PM, Meitnik at aol.com wrote:
>
>>
>>>When we talk about "true MDI", are we talking about containing all of
>>>the applications documents in a single window, rather than having each
>>>of them as an independent window?
>>>-- Well, ask a Windows developer what kind of MDI support is wanted in 
>>>RR. As
>>for me, I want a clean and effective way to handle MDI so it works like a MDI
>>critter in Windows expected. Anyone have a code library for handling MDI on
>>Windows with proper support for the taskbar?
>
>I'm sorry, I still don't understand. What is a "MDI critter" and "proper 
>support for the taskbar"? If no one properly identifies what they are 
>expecting (and why), it is highly unlikely that those expectations will be met.
>
>What *exactly* should MDI be doing, and what *exactly* should the taskbar 
>be doing?

Yes, MDI implies a single main window, with multiple child windows, each 
contained within the main window. A menu bar, status bar and task bar would 
be part of the main window, but their buttons/contents would apply to each 
(or often, the current) child window. (And individual child windows may 
also have their own, different task bars). The "standard" keyboard commands 
would apply (e.g. Ctrl-Tab should cycle through each child window, Alt-Tab 
should raise the main window in its turn, etc.)

(I have mostly a user rather than a developer point of view  - I've never 
developed anything to the MDI model because I dislike it and I know it's 
only a matter of time before the world, including even MS converts to a 
more document-centric model :-), so I may have missed something significant 
...)

-- Alex.