Re: FAQ -- why the MSDI interface? (aka, no pagers please)

[David Chart]

On 18 Aug 2001 18:23:37 +0200, H�kan Waara wrote:

> 
> No, this is extremely bad UI practice. Adding alerts and dialogs all 
> over the place to overcome design or programming decisions is the root 
> of all evil (trust me, I've been through this discussion before).
> 
> I would instead recommend that we hide the `Close' menuitem if there is 
> only one document left on the screen.  That way the user won't use 
> `Close' accidently and we won't have to show that alert.
> 

That's confusing. Why can't the user close that document?

Mind you, I don't think there is a good solution to this problem. The
MSDI Just Breaks under this particular set of conditions. The current
solution is bad, because it can lead to AbiWord unexpectedly vanishing.
Greying the 'Close' menu item, along with a tooltip saying *why* it's
greyed, may be the least bad solution, though.

-- 
David Chart