[Gimp-developer] 2.6 roadmapping, the UI part of it...

[David Marrs]

Guillermo Espertino wrote:
> I understand. It's clear that everyone's preference may vary on this 
> subject:
> 
> -Photoshop users will ask for floating windows nested in a container window.
> 
They ask for an MDI structure because that's what they know, but I suspect 
they'll be happy with any solution to their problem that works well.

All Mac software ported to Windows uses the parent window model because - I 
suspect - it's the simplest solution to the "where goes the omni-present menu 
bar?" problem. You put it at the top of an omni-present window that has to be 
maximised and you've got a makeshift Mac desktop. It's not elegant and it 
usually doesn't work very well (see Photoshop pre CS2 for details). Most (if not 
all) Unix WMs already share MS Windows's behaviour of every window containing 
its own menu bar, so why try and solve a problem that's already fixed?

Windows users hate the Gimp's current layout because it forces them to work 
using scaled windows. Windows users like to maximise *everything*, in case you 
hadn't noticed. I wouldn't be surprised if a large fraction of Windows/Gimp 
users maximise their canvases and then use alt-tab to access their tool 
dialogues. It also doesn't help that the default layout is very hungry of space. 
The first thing I do after installing Gimp is to reduce the size of the toolbox 
to something that leaves some room on my screen.

I think your own mock-up is a far superior solution to an MDI layout, especially 
if slave windows could be rolled up or otherwise made invisible. It allows one 
to work full screen, removes the confusing CDI structure and also reduces the 
problem of task bar clutter. I also think that extending the tool dialogue's 
tabbing feature to the canvas windows would be very natural and help the clutter 
problem as well. You could have several canvas windows each containing many 
images in tabs. You could even go as far as allowing tabs to be moved between 
the tool dialogues and canvas windows so that an overview could be nested 
directly beneath the layers tab, for example.

I'd address the short comings in GIMP's window implementation first and then see 
if MDI is actually still demanded before thinking about implementing it. Of 
course, you'll always get some criticism, but I think the majority would be 
satisfied with a solution that works, even if it isn't like how PS does it.

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