Chapter 3: Data Presentation Screen Issues

Overview

In Chapters 1 and 2 you dealt with only a portion of the data entry program; you stuck pretty much to designing the data entry screen itself. But what about the program as a whole? You will need to give some thought to how you want your program to work in its entirety.

This chapter deals with more of the predesign, if you will, of the data entry program you are writing. I cover in detail how to write multiple-document interface (MDI) and single-document interface (SDI) applications. Each of these design philosophies has advantages and disadvantages.

While I am on the subject of program design, I think it is prudent to cover some other, often forgotten aspects of program design: localization and accessibility. I cover these topics at the end of the chapter.

Note

I wrote a book on localizing software using .NET called Internationalization and Localization Using Microsoft .NET (Apress, 2002).[1] My discussion about localization in this chapter is nowhere near as thorough as in my previous book. It is intended here as an introduction.