Re: Reconsidering MDI

From: Alan Horkan (horkana@tcd.ie)
Date: Fri Mar 08 2002 - 13:06:04 GMT

  • Next message: [A]ndy80 - Andrea : "(no subject)"

    most tabs suck.
    tabs are a really cumbersome interface escpecially when you have more
    than two or three of them, you just end up burying useful information
    and putting barriers in the users way. Tabs are best used
    when the first page will be used a lot and the next page (or two) will be
    used far less often and is unecessarily complicated for the base case.

    tabs in mozilla/netscape6+ are useful mostly because they are faster than
    opening a whole new window, but try switching between tabs without using
    the mouse (you cant, at least not easily using Ctrl Tab).

    > > alternative browsers use MDI, including Opera, Mozilla and Galeon, in

    There is good reason for it not being the default interface.

    > > But the most popular MIcrosoft products already use MDI (as do the Corel

    Micrsoft may use MDI for some of its programs, but they ditched it in
    Microsoft Word 2000. For some people the extra complexity my be useful
    but for ordinary users its awkward.

    > > and Lotus suites). So corporate user acceptance should not be an issue.

    corporate acceptance is not an issue, following the standard (even if it
    is only a defacto standard) for the sake of usability is. The target user
    for abiword is the archetypal 'Church Secretary' an ordinary user who
    want to do the simple task well. If coporatations choose
    to use Abiword thats a bonus, not a priority.

    too many programs waste effort tabs to compensate for crappy window
    management that the OS/window manager neglected to provide (or the
    programmer neglected to take advantage of available features).

    What really matters is that this was firmly decided and you will
    have a very difficult time convincing the developers that it is even a
    good idea, especially considering all the important work to be done on
    the layout engine post 1.0
    If you were offering to add/code to allow abiword to do both im sure the
    developers would consider it very seriously but for simplicity and
    usuability it is wisest for abiword to choose SDI and go stick with it.

    Ask yourself what it exactly it is about tabs that you find so much
    better and more convenient?
    There may an SDI way to improve usuability without the need to drastically
    change paradigm. I would be very interseted if you could explain to me
    what it is that is so good about tabs/MDI (as it would apply to abiword).
    I agree tabs are a useful inteface, but only in limited circumstances,
    take a look at the inteface hall of shame and you will see tabs abused
    horribly.

    Sincerely
    Alan Horkan

    Note: i dont feel the need to start every sentence with the word 'In my
    opion', who elses opion would it be?

    > On Thursday 07 March 2002 06:12 pm, you wrote:
    > > I know there are usability and popularity issues involved in abiword's
    > > use of MDI (mutiple document interface).

    > > From file: /usr/share/AbiSuite/AbiWord/help/de-DE/de_DE/sdi.html:

    > > "Die am meisten bekannte Anwendung heutiger Benutzer ist ohne Zweifel
    > > der Interner Browser. Die meisten heutigen Browser benutzen das SDI
    > > Konzept. Daher sind die meisten Neutzer dieses Konzept und immer
    > > weniger das MDI Konzept gewohnt. Dieses bestätigt die Wahl dieser
    > > Technologie. Neue Benutzer müssen sich jedoch keine Gedanken machen, wie
    > > AbiWord nun funktioniert. Es funktioniert genau so, wie sie es erwarten.
    > > Neue AbiWord Benuzter werden also nicht verwirrt."

    thanks God for oogle translate, my German is terrible (and im fairly
    sure i read the original English version at some point).



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Mar 08 2002 - 08:11:59 GMT