On Jul 26, 2009, at 11:46 PM, David Blanton wrote:
I am the only Mac programmer where I work; the rest being windows.
I am constantly challenged to make Mac programs look like windows to
some extent.
I guess I'd ask the question we often ask about coding questions: What
are you really trying to do? It sounds like the problem is that
Windows users accustomed to MDI get visually confused by multiple
windows from different apps overlapping each other willy-nilly. One
simple solution to that is Command-Option-H to hide all other apps;
there's even a utility out there that will do this for you
automatically when you switch apps. There are also utility apps that
place a dark gray background between your app's windows and all other
apps' windows.
Windows has an architecture called Multiple Document Interface.
Each doc opened is displayed in the same window 'frame' with a row
of tab controls at the top to select a document.
A Cocoa Document-Based App is one document one window ... multiple
windows.
How do I win the battle of 'too many windows floatin' around on the
Mac, we want everything in one window like windows!" ?
First, there are certain realities that no amount of battling will
change: some Windows users want MDI, and the Mac does not support it.
Second, it seems to me, to borrow a business cliché, that you're all
"on the same team," with the same goals -- delivering successful
applications. What's not clear to me is why the Windows developers
care whether your apps are Windows-like, and why they have any
influence over your design. Are they also end-users? Are your apps
in-house apps? Do they have authority over your UI decisions or
merely complaints? Aren't you there to be the person who knows better
about Macs than they do -- or else *they'd* be writing your apps?
Can I use Safari tabs somehow?
I don't know of any public framework for creating tabbed interfaces.
I'm pretty sure there are some good third-party options. If tabs are
all it would take to satisfy your co-workers, then sure, you could
create an interface they'd like better without violating Mac UI
conventions.
However, as I recall, MDI is much more than a tabbed interface. It's
actually windows within a window, where each sub-window is a real
window, complete with in-window menu bar, and the Mac frameworks
simply do not support this. The nearest thing would either be a
tabbed interface as you suggested or an index-card metaphor like I've
seen for at least one app (targeted at writers). The latter would be
a much different metaphor than "windows within a window," but people
who don't get that applications should behave according to the UI
rules of their respective platforms probably aren't too sensitive to
such nuances.
--Andy
_______________________________________________
Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com)
Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
