Re: Dockng windows to each other

[Tima Vaisburd]

Hello Uli,

On Sunday 18 January 2004 14:26, Uli Kusterer wrote:

>  that'd be quite a huge step to add on top of that. Even if it only
> worked inside applications and not across, it would be a good deal of
> work to implement right.

Yes, I misread your mail. Sorry. I was so happy to find another person who
thinks about docking the windows together that I jumped to answer before
I even read till the end.

You are right, this is another issue, and I should probably say "never mind".

> Usually it's much easier to just create a single window and stuff views
> in it, then to create a decent multi-view layout.

I guess you mean "to create multi-windows layout". I have to admit I haven't
seen any.

I'm personally not much excited about this, but that's just because I prever
a different kind of UI - one view, if possible. For instance I configure
file manager to be without a directory tree on the left, remove toolbars if I 
can etc. My ideal is something like "one smart list of paper", one thing that 
can illustrate this is a digital camera on-screen interface.

So, intra-app docking is a useful thing, but I would try to avoid the
elements you want to play with in the first place. Again, this is just a 
personal preference.

I thought about inter-app docking as a way to make things powerful but still 
visually clean.

>  Well, the problem with inter-application communication isn't really the
> low-level method (whether it'd be DO, which lends itself to this use in
> GNUstep, or pipes, or whatever), it's how the applications would
> communicate sensibly without knowing each other beforehand.

Absolutely!

> inter-application-docking in a generic fashion
> still seems to me like a solution looking for a problem right now.

Maybe. Especially because it's based on another idea - a universal
window that can hold almost anything. I was this kind of windows
that were supposed to dock to each other. It's a dream, right now ;)

Cheers,
Tima.