Talk:Tabbed document interface

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[edit] SecurityFocus cite

On 01 Nov 2004, this article was cited in a SecurityFocus article on phishing. Securiger 06:50, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] IBrowse

When did Netcaptor add its tabbed browsing? IBrowse added it in 1999, and I'm not certain if this is before or after Netcaptor.

ANS. NetCaptor had tabbed browsing in January 1998 in its first release. At that point it was called SimulBrowse.

[edit] Advantages/Disadvantages confusion

though, if too many documents are open, the tabs can be rather difficult to manage or label. This is in the "Advantages" section. Shouldn't it be moved to the "Disadvantages" section of the article????



there are no disadvantages —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.45.247.110 (talk) 12:47, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Aza Dotzler reference...

It seems the reference link to Aza Dotzler's tabbed browser history was added, removed, then added again (by User:Minghong). According to the very description given in *this wikipedia article*, Aza is incorrect in his categorisation of the history time-line (he also ignores Galeon - anyone know when Galeon added tabbed browsing, IIRC it was 2000/2001?). The definition on this page would clearly classify Opera 4 as being a tabbed browser, yet he uses a weird MDI/SDI hybrid classification which is not at all relevant. The comments on that page are a rather pathetic flame-fest, all noise and no signal. So I really wonder what the point of linking to that incorrect article is?

Dotzler is a Mozilla employee who has distorted facts many times before. I am all for removing this biased link, if it IS added, it should be qualified as "Mozilla employee Asa Dotzler's…" Jordi·✆ 15:02, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
Yep, Asa's blog post is factually incorrect. It is also not NPOV. -^^-
The earliest reference to tabs in Galeon that I can verify is November 9th 2000 (through waybackmachine) ... I certainly recall learning of tabs from Galeon before Opera.

[edit] Safari's tabbed browsing?

Why do people think Safari support tabbed browsing?

Because it does? - Nunh-huh 23:31, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Safari, ("the newest release") doesn't even have tabbed browsing, just to clarify. - (unsigned)

Who told you that? I seem to be looking at tabs in Safari even as we speak. - Nunh-huh 23:31, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Definition in non-xDI terms?

The article positions TDI relative to other document models such as MDI and SDI. Both of these are Windows-centric terms and aren't always well-defined on other platforms. This could be easily pointed out, but instead more clarity could be provided in describing what differentiates a TDI from a-window-with-tabs. To me, the key point of differentiation lies in the definition of a document. Before attempting to define this, I'd like to get some consensus as to whether this is a useful path to take. -- AlastairR 08:47, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Not Part of the Windows UI Guidelines

It should be pointed out that:

  • TDI is not part of the Windows UI guidelines
  • Some of the examples given are actually instances of other Windows UI window models. For example, Excel is an instance of the Workbook window management model. (This also goes to the problem of definition mentioned above)

Does anyone disagree with this? -- AlastairR 08:47, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

OK no one seemed to disagree so I made the change. However I would like some validation from someone else that Excel is NOT a TDI application. -- AlastairR 10:37, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How many examples and screenshots do we really need?

Maybe one example per application type (browser, IM client, etc) might be illuminating. But, do we really want to see a screenshot of each contributer's favourite tabbed browser? What's the point? -- AlastairR 13:02, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

took off one of the screenshots. If anyone is really adamant about putting more in, please start a list page and put them there. Thanks!dr.ef.tymac 21:09, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History

The claims about the history of tabbed browsing interface in browsers reported in the article and at the this blog from mozilla differ. Does any body know which one is correct?-- Anupamsr|talk |contribs  08:30, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Asa is a Mozilla employee so he may not have a neutral point of view: He says Opera 6 wes the first versión of Opera which included tabs, even though it was version 4. You should read Does firefox copy Opera?, specially my answer cause I have uploaded a screenshot of InternetWorks --FedericoMP 07:49, 24 October 2006 (UTC) It seems they deleted my answer. I have reuploaded the screenshot at Flickr. --FedericoMP 23:06, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Firefox tabbed browsing

Referring to the statement "*Firefox arguably popularized tabbed browsing, when was tabbed browsing added to Firefox??*", Firefox was built on top of Mozilla, via Firebird and Phoenix, and has had tabbed browsing since its inception. As to whether or not Firefox "popularized" tabbed browsing, I would lean against saying this. You would need to compare numbers of firefox users against numbers of users of Opera, Safari, and Mozilla. It is certainly true that Firefox popularized the "non-IE" web browser, and pretty much every web browser had tabbed browsing except for IE when Firefox came out. User:seanahan:seanahan 4:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Example Screenshots

I think it would be beneficial for the example screenshots to show the applications in their default state. I'm not sure about some of the others, but I know the example screenshot for Firefox is highly customized. Not only does it look unprofessional to not use the default appearance in an instance such as this, one could argue that the clutter detracts from the focus on the tabbed browsing feature.

[edit] Always maximized?

"TDI windows must always be maximized inside their parent window" That doesn't sound right to me.

Can you give an example of when this isn't true? Seems like it is to me. That's the whole point. — Omegatron 20:30, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
For example VEDIT. There is definitely no reason why adding Tab bar would require maximizing all windows. --PauliKL (talk) 15:23, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Combine them all

Is there any reason why programs are forced to use one of the paradigms? Either MDI, SDI, or TDI. MDI is just SDI with another window around it, and TDI is just MDI with each document maximized. It seems like newer Linux-ish window managers would just abstract the concept of daughter windows (and regular windows) and allow the user to select whichever interface they wanted for a particular app, or even for the whole window manager. Has anyone done this? — Omegatron 20:30, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia

I think it should be mentioned that Wikipedia uses a tab-like interface. Look at the top of this article. There are tabs labeled "article", "discussion," "edit this page," and "history." I'm not putting it in myself because, looking through the article, I couldn't really find a good place to put this information. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.100.89.167 (talk) 18:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC).

Not really. It's a website, not an application. How would it even be possible to make a multiple-document interface for a website? — Omegatron 19:38, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
frames, hidable layers, lots of ways. wikipedia is an encyclopedia application (a la encarta) running on a remote server with an HTML ui. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 15:59, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
Meebo uses a MDI, and that's a website (arguably a web-application). While I do agree that Wikipedia uses tabs, I will disagree in that Wikipedia is NOT a TDI (The tabs can be considered emulating a TDI... but all they really are, are links to other documents). 96.240.113.67 (talk) 19:46, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History in Browsers

The edit removing the reference to InternetWorks tabbed browser stated that there was no source confirming this. There is an article: Windows, Unix, OS/2 and the Mosaic War published in 1995 that shows a screenshot of the InternetWorks browser. It looks like the screenshot is either early 1995 or 1994. This is a different screenshot than the one mentioned above. The article is dated and the screenshot shows a link on the IBM pane titled "IBM at Internet World '94". Is more evidence needed? -- McDScott 00:42, 23 February 2007 (UTC)


Added an additional note at the section about dealing with multiple tabs. Besides scrolling/multiple rows, zooming is also a viable method. I added a link to the page about FishEyeTabs, which is a free extension for Firefox for zooming tabs.

[edit] Comparison to MDI

Referring to the section:

One example of an application that allows either TDI or MDI browsing is Opera. Using TDI by default, this application also supports full MDI and can also run as an SDI application.

Isn’t it more correct to mention that Opera supports both TDI and MDI? You have all of the advantages of both. If you want to tile/cascade/stretch/reposition a tab/window you can. Those are MDI features. Yet the tabs/windows never disappear. I know the article says so in effect, but it glosses over the fact. I think the language could indicate that Opera is unusual in this regard. Using Opera as “an example” alludes to the idea that there are many TDI interfaces that are also MDI. But I think Opera is quite unique, isn't it? I think the language could be more clear. The first sentence alludes to it being an either/or distinction, then the second sentence says that it fully supports MDI when it is in a TDI mode. Pretty much contradicts the first sentence.

I would actually rather see a list of multi-interfaced programs rather than pointing Opera out, as that really isn't anything special anymore. Firefox, Opera, and IE all can do that so there really isn't much to add by singling out Opera 96.240.113.67 (talk) 19:48, 21 April 2008 (UTC)