MDI applications are deprecated?

[Ed Gadziemski]

Shog9 wrote:

I don't know how many times i've lost an unsaved Excel document by closing the window, only to find that it closed the app (and all other top-level windows with it).

YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!@#$%*^& Yeah, I hate that, too.

[Dan Neely]

My greatest ire is directed at hte office apps that haven't had that update, and are still pure MDI. Need to look at two visio docs at once, enjoy the window(?) menu to switch between them. Got two monitors, it's still all or nothing just with a single app streched across both monitors and the children demaximized and alos manually sized. :mad:

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

[Chris Maunder]

Please no. What an annoyance they are.

cheers, Chris Maunder

CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

[code frog 0]

If they do, we can just hook the API and do it ourselves. :cool:

---

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered process, husband to a murdered thread. And I will have my affinity, in this life or the next. - Gladiator. (Okay, not quite Gladiator but close.) I work to live. I do not live to work. My clients do not seem capable of grasping this fact. Ancient of days! august Athena! where, Where are thy men of might? - Lord Byron

[richard stott]

You mean like a Mac?

[WillemM]

Don't go there... it's a weak comparison. I think the MTSDI is great, especially with multiple monitors. In my opinion microsoft should modify visio to support this model too.

WM. What about weapons of mass-construction? "What? Its an Apple MacBook Pro. They are sexy!" - Paul Watson

[NormDroid]

MDI is ok if use in the correct scenarios.

.net is a box of never ending treasures, every day I get find another gem.

[Mark_Wallace]

dan neely wrote:

Need to look at two visio docs at once, enjoy the window(?) menu to switch between them. Got two monitors, it's still all or nothing just with a single app streched across both monitors and the children demaximized and alos manually sized.

Drag and drop your second Visio (or PowerPoint, which has the same problem) file onto an Internet Explorer window, right-click on a blank space on the IE toolbar, and select "Show Document Tools" (with PowerPoint, you also have to right-click on the presentation, and choose "Edit Presentation"). Problem solved. You owe me a beer.

[micmanos]

MDI apps will eventually become obsolete but not because they're replaced by TABs. That's just silly. Tabs although offer a great advantage, they require a completelly different structure and operation flow. MDI apps are hard to design and handle, especially when you've got multiple forms showing the same information. In such cases, syncronization is very hard and that's why i believe that MDI is more of a 'operation design' rather than a 'GUI design' thing. MDI will become obsolete because it's being replaced by multi-instance or SDI (with separate toolbars or other windows) applications but the 'multiple' style will continue to be the essence of many applications.

[Dan Neely]

Mark Wallace wrote:

Problem solved. You owe me a beer.

Have a six pack. :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

[Dan Neely]

norm .net wrote:

MDI is ok if use in the correct scenarios.

Very true. Opera's MDI that looks like tabs stops all over FF's strict tabbed UI. Want to look at two 'tabs' at once? Just unmaximize them. Want to keep your taskbar uncluttered, all popups load as tabs instead of separate top level items. You also get to use anything in the browser toolbar/menu system on them as well.

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

[Machaira]

Depends on the app and the data it's displaying/managing. For some apps it might make sense to use tabs, for others it might make sense to have multiple top-level windows. You have to make that decision.

[Mike Dimmick]

At least as of 2003: Word creates multiple top-level frame windows, but also has an 'X' in the menu bar to allow you to close the document and manage some of Word's own options; clicking the main close button closes the frame and the single document in that frame. Excel is fully MDI but (optionally and by default) creates a taskbar button for each open MDI child window. Clicking the main close button closes the frame and all documents in it (i.e. quits the app). PowerPoint is fully MDI and creates taskbar buttons like Excel, but clicking the frame's Close button only closes the current document; on closing the last document in this way, the frame goes as well. I seem to recall this hadn't changed in the 2007 betas.

Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder

[Mike Dimmick]

Word features multiple top-level frames, Excel doesn't (at least not without explicitly opening another Excel process from the Start menu). This confuses people swapping between the apps.

Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder

[kenearle]

And ultimately in a burst of genius redesign there'll be a single menu bar right at the top of the screen. Wait, there's a name for that approach....Morkintoosh, Mekintash...?