On Mar 26, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Gail Banaszkiewicz wrote:
Personally I have always preferred the model where there is one encompassing program window, and then sub windows contained within it. I can't stand millions of separate windows (i.e. GIMP). The taskbar only shows one item for the program instead of one for each document open. If the tabs you are talking about could be "minimized" (using the term loosely) you could achieve the side-by-side behavior.
Here is a screen shot showing what I mean: http://gbanaszk.oasis.nexus.carleton.ca/SummerOfCode/ docsSideBySide.png
Hi Gail,
What you are describing there is classic MDI, and was officially deprecated on Windows back when Microsoft first introduced Windows 95.
There had been reasons for it back in the days before cooperative multitasking, but for the most part MDI itself was deprecated for very good, solid reasons.
Catch me on Jabber some time and I'm sure I'll be able to discuss my viewpoint in more detail. :-)