[Lazarus] My two wishes for the Message window of the IDE

[Pino Zollo]

On 27 February 2010 07:18, Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1 at aol.com> wrote:
>> I think you meant other way round. :-) Old Delphi 7 and earlier used
>> SDI interface by default.
>
> No, that's neither MDI nor SDI.

Nope, it's SDI. :-)


>> MDI (multi-document interface) is one big
>> outer window with multiple other windows embedded inside that parent
>> window. Most IDE's seem to go the MDI route.
>
> That's called SDI, not MDI. A single window contains frames, filling the
> entire window. It's like everything docked into a single application window,
> and some IDEs actually allows to undock some frames.

SDI and MDI have nothing to do with docking. Both can support docking,
but my major difference is how the main form manages the child forms.
In a MDI interface, the child forms are encapsulated into a mini
"virtual desktop" environment. They can move around only in this
virtual desktop, can be iconified, minimized, maximized.

SDI interfaces, the main form and the child forms are completely
separated and when iconified, it is iconified to the OS desktop or
taskbar, NOT to the main form.

The following ASCII art requires a mono font to view correctly.


----------------------------------------------------

MDI interface
 +-------------------------------+
 |  Main window                  |
 |                               |
 |   +-----------+               |
 |   | window 1  |               |
 |   |   +-----------+           |
 |   +---| window 2  |           |
 |       |    +-----------+      |
 |       +----| window 3  |      |
 |            |           |      |
 |            +-----------+      |
 | +4-+                          |
 | +--+                          |
 +-------------------------------+


SDI interface
 +-------------------------------+
 |  Main window                  |
 +-------------------------------+

 +-----------+            +-----+
 | window 1  |            | 4   |
 |   +-----------+        +-----+
 +---| window 2  |        |     |
     |    +-----------+   | 5   |
     +----| window 3  |   |     |
          |           |   +-----+
          +-----------+

----------------------------------------------------


In the MDI interface above, Window 4 is iconified, but the icon is
still inside the Main Form.

In the SDI interface, Window 4 and Window 5 are docked. Also all child
windows are separate (outside) from the Main Window.


example of MDI applications:  Adobe Photoshop, MS Access

examples of SDI applications: Lazarus IDE, Delphi 7 IDE, GIMP


-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -


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