Single document interface and multiple document interface

Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_document_interface

Https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b2kye6c4.aspx

SDI applications allow only one open document frame window at a time.

It's made up to one or more independent windows, which appears separately on the Windows desktop.

An example of this would is a simple text document (Notepad).

MDI applications allow multiple document frame windows to is open in the same instance of a application.

An MDI application have a window within which multiple MDI child windows which is frame windows themselves, can be opened , each containing a separate document.

In some applications, the child windows can be of different types, such as chart windows and spreadsheet spreadsheet software windows.

In this case, the menu bar can change as MDI child windows of different types is activated.

Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_document_interface

Comparison with single Document interface

In the usability community, there have been much debate about whether the multiple document or single document interface is Preferable.

Software companies has used both interfaces with mixed responses.

For example, Microsoft changed it Office applications from SDI to MDI mode and then back to SDI, although the degree of I Mplementation varies from one component to another.

SDI can be more useful in cases where users switch more often between separate applications than among the windows of one Application.

The disadvantage of MDI usually cited refers to is it lack of information about the currently opened windows:

In MDI applications, the application developer must provide a-to switch between documents or view a list of open Windo WS, and the user might have a application-specific menu ("Window list" or something similar) to switch between ope n Documents.

Contrast to SDI applications, where the window manager ' s task bar or Task Manager displays the currently opened Windows.

However, in recent years it had become increasingly common for MDI applications to use ' tabs ' to display the currently Ope Ned windows, which have made this criticism somewhat obsolete.

An interface in which tabs was used to manage open documents was referred to as a "tabbed Document Interface" (TDI).

Another option is ' tiled ' panes or windows, which make it easier to prevent content from overlapping.

Some applications allow the user-to-switch between these modes at their choosing, depending on personal preference or the Task at hand.

Nearly all graphical user interface toolkits to date provide at least one solution for designing MDIs, with an exception b Eing Apple ' s Cocoa API. The Java GUI Toolkit, Swing, for instance, provides the class javax.swing.JDesktopPane which serves as a container for individual frames (clas S javax.swing.JInternalFrame ). GTK + lacks any standardized support for MDI.

Single document interface and multiple document interface