[bt-devel] Feature-a-thon - Tabs Within Windows

[Gary Holmlund]

Kim,

Thanks for the comments. I believe the tabs in windows still works well 
for what you describe. First you don't have to add the extra tabs to a 
window. If only one tab is open in a window, the tab would not be 
displayed and not require any extra screen space. Second, if you open 1 
window and maximize it and then add multiple tabs to it, it basically 
looks like the top level tabbed windows.

The case where I believe the tab in windows works better for is a case 
where you want to have several modules open at once and want to see at 
least two of them at the same time. Perhaps you open one window and then 
several tabs to bible modules. The bible modules may be different bible 
versions or the same version open to several different references. Then 
open a second window and multiple commentaries as tabs in it. You could 
easily look at any of the bible references and any of the commentaries 
at the same time.

Gary


Kim Blewett wrote:
> I'm not a developer, but here's my two cents worth as a user/computer 
> trainer:
>
> In SIL some of us are working on a Bible translation environment for 
> low-powered netbooks, that can be used with smallish solar panels for 
> translators in remote locations.
>
> "Low-powered" means "small-screen," so maximizing usable screenspace 
> is good. I really like the look of your top-level tabbed windows 
> model, especially if the user can choose between tabbed/tiled 
> (/cascaded?) windows. I think the users we're targeting, often new to 
> computers, would prefer tabbed over cascaded windows. I think a button 
> on the toolbar might be useful for toggling between tiled/tabbed (once 
> my preferred tiled arrangement is set up).
>
> I don't see much of an advantage to having tabs within windows... 
> seems like it uses up valuable screen space for those who don't have 
> large monitors.
>
> Many thanks for all your hard work on improving BibleTime!
> Kim
>
> Raoul Snyman wrote:
>> Hi Gary,
>>
>> On Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:08:22 -0800, Gary Holmlund wrote:
>>   
>>> While the top level tabbed windows I originally proposed would be easy 
>>> to do, I feel that the other choice you made or having tabs within 
>>> windows is a very good idea. I don't believe both should be done as we 
>>> would have tabbed windows with tabs inside of them. I don't think that 
>>> would look right.
>>>
>>> I prototyped tabs within windows by taking the Qt demo program that is a 
>>> mdi program with QTextEdit widgets for its windows. I used a subclass of 
>>> QTabWidget as the windows and put the QTextEdit on each tab. Look at the 
>>> second graphic here:
>>>
>>> http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/New_Window_Arrangement_Modes
>>>     
>>
>> This looks great, I just have one question: what would be the purpose of
>> these tabs-within-windows? I'm not seeing a real use-case for it. Could you
>> perhaps explain the reasoning behind your idea?
>>
>>   
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