[GUI] Opinion summary.

[Nick Name]

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 17:12:54 +0000
Axel Simon <A.Simon@ukc.ac.uk> wrote:

> 
>   Oh no, the point should be: If you use the Common API you will 
>  (automatically) get applications which have a native look-and-feel.

I think there is a more tecnical aspect to discuss and that perhaps
could be added to the summary if people agree.

Macos X has a notion of "application" and one of "document", and when
one closes the last window of an application, the application is still
running. On windows, OTOH, it's (at least it was) common pratice not to
open a second instance of an application, but a new document instead,
for every run of the program. On linux, there is the well known
behaviour of creating a new unix process, and a new instance of the
application, for every execution of the program.

This behaviour is however abandoned by gnome, kde and mozilla I guess,
so it could have been a mistake; this could be argumented by observing
that emacs itself has a client-server option. Maybe having separate
instances is just easier on unix (avoiding the plethora of servers that
are started in kde and gnome, for example, which sometimes don't work
and don't let you create new applications. Yes, with this consideration
I am voting for separate processes). The real problem is that linux does
not have (if it ever has only two looks) a native feel, so one should be
chosen before we start working.

To get back on what I was talking about, if we want the common API to
achieve real look and feel, we ought to have an "application"
abstraction, wich is different from the "window" one. So an application
could behave really different in any OS. On OSX, the menus of the
documents of the same application will have to be in a submenu of the
main menu for the application, and items like "exit" wich are not in the
file menu (at least, I think I have heard so :)) need to be part of the
"application" abstraction, as do the common items wich are found in the
"help" menu.

Vincenzo

-- 
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win.
[Gandhi]