This is the eighth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III | part IV | part V | part VI | part VII]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part VIII, we focus on the tab.
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Member since:2006-01-01
That is correct but not all tabbed interfaces are MDI. Tabs can be used to represent multiple user elements. These elements can either be forms or just plain controls stacked on top of each other and just BringToFront() the control. If they are child forms in an MDI, when a tab is clicked you just activate/show that form and if they are multiple controls in an SDI form, you just bring the control referenced by the tab index to the front. As far as the user is concerned, he can't see any difference except that he won't be able to have multiple views when going with the SDI version because there won't be any child forms to unmaximize. Having an SDI tabbed interface is much more efficient than with MDI. It faster and slicker. FF is a perfect example of a tabbed interface implemented using SDI. It requires less memory too when compared with an MDI version of it but coding it is a bit trickier so you have to know what you are doing. This is especially important when handling events.
Edited 2008-08-17 01:24 UTC
Member since:2006-01-01
When you think of it, there are many ways.
Member since:
2005-07-06
The implementation in Opera was functionally-identical to tabbed-browsing, though. I generally think of tabbed interfaces as an evolution/refinement of MDI, especially since many of the holdout MDI apps provide a row of buttons to select the active document (as did Opera - tabs by any other name).