Re: [lmi] MDI children order

[Greg Chicares]

On 2014-11-09 17:20Z, Vadim Zeitlin wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Nov 2014 13:40:39 +0000 Greg Chicares <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> GC> On 2014-10-20 22:18Z, Vadim Zeitlin wrote:
> GC> > 
> GC> >  In addition, while testing this, I noticed that using Ctrl-TAB to 
> switch
> GC> > between MDI windows didn't work neither when the focus was in the census
> GC> > window and that this key combination was handled like a plain TAB 
> instead.
> GC> > This is fixed too now.
> GC> 
> GC> The keyboard mapping seems to be:
> GC>   Ctrl-Tab       --> Window | Previous
> GC>   Ctrl-Shift-Tab --> Window | Next
> GC> but I was expecting:
> GC>   Ctrl-Tab       --> Window | Next
> GC>   Ctrl-Shift-Tab --> Window | Previous
> GC> I'm using wx trunk as of commit 06ddf44a276524d9e154cbe6c7dd4f3d8442f912.
> 
>  It is even stranger. Keyboard mappings are correct, it's just that the
> menu commands themselves work opposite to what one would expect, i.e.
> "Next" actually switches to the previous MDI child, according to the order
> in the "Window" menu, and "Previous" goes to the next one.

[...and even Petzold's hoary old MDIDEMO.EXE works that way...]

>  In short, I guess we will just have to live with this behaviour. And if
> you'd like to have something more reasonable/controllable, then I think LMI
> should switch to using a tab-based

That's the result of backward evolution from MDI, IMO. It conserves some
of the benefits, at the cost of a line of tabs. With 600 pixels of vertical
resolution, I don't want to spend 20 or 30 on tabs. And if I dig my heels
in and wait a few years, MDI may come back in style. My wardrobe did.
Those crates of "records" in my basement have now become trendy "vinyl".
Fashion is a magnet: it can pull you far away from home.

> or (if/when it's finally integrated into
> wx...) AUI-based doc/view framework,

Maybe. Someday. But I've used MDI so long, I may go wrong and lose my way.

> which would be preferable for MDI
> anyhow nowadays (I had serious trouble finding any MDI application on my
> system at all, I think MDI went out of fashion in the last century...).

Nope: adobe "acrobat". I have a very recent version, from 2006.

And it behaves the same way as Petzold's MDIDEMO.EXE, so this discussion
of lmi is resolved: "not a defect; won't fix".

As for "acrobat", a few months ago, in 2008 or so (weeks turn into years,
how quick they pass), they decided to chase fashion at the cost of
customer satisfaction:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/993236
|
| | A cost compelling reason was that MDI and SDI mode essentially became
| | another view mode in which all work flows had to be tested
|
| But automated testing tools also decrease the cost of testing.

Maybe automated GUI testing will come into fashion this millennium. So
there's a consulting opportunity for you. (I've got lot of friends in
San Jose....)