On Mon, 26 Mar 2007, Gail Banaszkiewicz wrote:
bulia byak wrote:
I'm afraid there are many who are used to the current behavior (e.g. for viewing documents or views of the same document side by side).
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
That screenshot is a classic example of Multiple Document Interface (MDI). Microsoft Word abandoned this approach in about 2000 (if I recall correctly, possibly earlier) as the concept of a single document per window was/is considered easier for users to grasp. You might recall marketing and to a lesser extent usability* are strengths of Microsoft, love them or loathe them.
(Boring explanation to follow to hopefully avoid ambiguity in the disctussion:
What the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) does is very specifically a Controlled Single Document Interface (CSDI), where the toolbox acts as the main control window.
Applications ported from the Macintosh to Windows often use a Controlled Single Document Interface but more often the Menu bar window acts as the main control window.
Inkscapes uses a Single Document Interface much closer to what the rest of Gnome users.)
Hope that helps