[wxPython-users] How do Mac users feel about AUI?

[Christopher Barker]

Kevin Ollivier wrote:
>> Does it feel like a Mac? Would it turn off Mac users?
> 
> In terms of Mac support, the issue for me isn't really the 'style' of 
> the tabs, it's actually the use of tabs for multiple documents.

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

  In terms
> of document editors on Mac, nearly all of them provide an option to open 
> each document in a new window, and many of them default to that. The 
> reason this is important is because on Mac, users are used to being able 
> to position and arrange documents so that they can quickly switch 
> between them, or also compare documents, etc.

This is critical on non-mac platforms to. Maybe Windows users are use to 
painfully crippled interfaces, but *nix users are (*emacs ones anyway) 
are used to being able to put different docs in different windows.

Like Kevin, this is a primary reason I have yet to use a single wxPython 
built editor with any regularity. On any platform.

> TextWrangler 
> has nice features like a file comparison mode (essentially a visual 
> diff) that really aren't possible unless you can align windows 
> side-by-side in the interface.

Well, a visual diff is often a special case, supported by a whole new 
view (like Eclipse does it). However, there are plenty of other reasons 
to need to see files side by side, and I want to be able to arrange them 
however I please, not JUST side by side.

This is on of the primary reasons why I'm excited about the Peppy editor 
project. Stani, If you're re-doing your UI with AUI, I do hope you'll 
work with Rob and Peppy.

OH, and I"m not convinced that even if you need a way to switch between 
files shown in a Panel that a notebook is the way to do it. See the 
TextWrangler example, among others.

 > Mac really needs is an "SDI" mode - where each
> document gets a top level window to it, and each 'palette' window pops 
> up in a wxMiniFrame.

Which isn't really SDI either -- I don't know a good name for it. 
However, the best option really is to have a mixture. I'm often working 
with ten or more files, and what I want is maybe two or three in their 
own frame. So you need to have multiple files in one frame, and multiple 
frames. Much like Firefox or Emacs, or TextWrangler, or Peppy.

Firefox is a good model to follow, as lots of folks with be used th 
that. However, it's a bit too rigid about a given page being in only one 
  Frame. For an editor, I'd like to be able to get a complete list of 
ALL the open files at any time, and open a given one in any frame.

> I actually have started working on something like this,

Kevin, you should see what Rob is doing with Peppy too. I'm hoping to 
help with the Mac port, but it'd be great to have someone that really 
knows what he's doing work on it.

-Chris


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