Re: [MAS-discuss] Proposed major changes to the charting GUI

[Jim C. <jt...@di...>]

> Pawel Konieczny wrote:
> 
> >Hi Jim and Pedro,
> >
> >I am a "Windows user" and MDI is not what I expected.  I know that it is
> >...
> >
> >The state of the art currently is to use panned and tabbed windows and
> >(detachable) toolbars, like in Outlook, Outlook Express, or even in
> >Developer Studio.  Tabs allow for quick switching between predefined layouts
> >(with possibly its own content), while resizable and draggable panes allow
> >for quick and efficient layout change.  Detachable toolbars and menus allow
> >for trade off between how much of screen space is left for main display vs.
> >how much information may be hidden by overlapping window.
> >
> Ok, that sounds like something to look at, and all these opinions are 
> very valuable, my question is if a tabbed system as such were 
> implemented how would side by side chart comparisons work? Any ideas? 

I just thought of a couple possibilities - are these doable?  Allow the
windows to be independent, but provide the option of "hooking" two
windows (or more) together, either end-to-end or bottom-to-top (i.e.,
vertically or horizontally).  Once they're hooked together, they can
be moved, resized, etc. as one window.  Also, I think either or both of
these possibilities would be quite useful and appealing:

Possibility 1: The user clicks a button to make the current window he's
working with "transparent".  Then he moves that window so that it covers
another window.  He then clicks a button that resizes the transparent
window so that it is the same size and aligned exactly over the other
window.  Since the first window is transparent, the user can see both
its contents (price chart, indicators, etc.) and the covered window's
contents and can thus compare the two charts.

Possibility 2: The user moves window A so that it covers window B (if it's
smaller it only partially covers B).  The user then clicks some kind of
"merge windows" button and the two windows are magically merged into one
window.  The result is that the chart for symbol x from window A and the
chart for symbol y from window B both appear in the newly merged window.

Do others agree that being able to do either or both of these would be very
useful?

Pedro, are the above 2 possibilities implementable?

> All feedback is greatly appreciated, I thought of doing it with MDI 
> since most of the TA programs I have seen use it, are there newer ones 
> that don't? Which are they? I would like to see them.

That's an important question.  In people's opinion, what are the better
TA/charting programs in terms of GUI design and what paradigm do they use?

Jim

> 
> Thanks
> 
> Pedro
> 
> >
> >And finally: I do believe that MDI is better than the current UI design, so
> >it will be an improvement anyway.
> >
> >Pawel