Multiple and Single Document Interfaces

Abstract

As long as developers have had graphical windows to play with, there have been heated debates about the best ways to organize these windows into applications. Although there are hundreds of possibilities, most user interfaces tend to fall into one of three categories: MDI (multiple document interface). MDIs start with a single container window that represents the entire application. Inside the container window are multiple child windows. Depending on the type of application, these child windows might represent different documents the user is editing at the same time or different views of the same data. Visual Studio is an MDI application. SDI (single document interface). SDIs can open only a single document at a time. Notepad is an example of an SDI application—if you want to open two text files at once, you need to fire up two instances of Notepad. MFI (multiple frame interface). MFIs place each document into a completely separate window, which gets a separate button on the taskbar. When you open multiple documents in an MFI application, it looks as though there are multiple instances of the application running at once (similar to an SDI application). However, the underlying architecture is different. Word is an MFI application—even though each document has its own separate window, you can use the Window menu to jump from one to another, because they’re really all part of one application. KeywordsVisual StudioMenu ItemChild FormOrder ClassPublic ClassThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.