Discussion: Multiple window GUIs

From: Noah Roberts (nroberts_at_dontemailme.invalid)
Date: 06/23/04 

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:31:40 -0700

I have been keenly aware of a type of GUI design that doesn't sit well
with me in Linux programs. Multiple windowed applications that don't
perform in a coherent manner. Let me explain...

An example of how I would prefer programs to act is something like
Delphi for Windows. This program has several windows it uses, a top
menubar/toolbar/function stuff window, a project browser window, a code
window, and a compilation window. Sometimes more than this. You can
close/minimize these windows individually, or you can close the entire
program with the [x] in the 'main' window (the menubar). When you
maximize individual windows the maximize relative to the rest of the
windows on the screen for that program and do not cover them up. This
allows one to easily take the whole window while maintaining easy access
to functions.

A program that works in the way I like for Linux would be XMMS, though I
have never maximized (in fact it has no button for it). It can have
multiple windows open but only shows up as a single program in the task
bar and minimizes/returns as a whole.

Now lets look at a few Linux programs that could act in the same way but
don't: gimp, dia, sodipodi, and glade are the most obvious to me.

These programs have a toolbar (something more like photoshop really, but
the purpose is the same) and working window(s) at the least. They also
can have a miriad of dialogs for various tools and functions open. But
they don't behave well in my opinion.

If I maximize the working window I loose immediate access to all of the
other windows and dialogs, including my tools because it maximizes over
the entire desktop (except maybe a panel or two in gnome or KDE). To
use as much desktop as possible without covering important dialogs I
have to manually size all windows; I think it could work better than that.

Some programs close the entire thing if I hit the [x] in the main
dialog, but others do not. When I minimize the main dialog I am not
minimizing the entire program, which could consist of several windows;
this means that I need to either close the program (if that works), or
minimize a lot of windows to clean up the desktop for another program
temporarily.

I see this as an existing and growing trend in Linux GUI design and
think it is appropriate to discuss the reasons behind it and what could
be done to improve this aspect of Linux applications. What are thoughts
on the matter?

NR

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