[OT] Terminal width (was: OpenOffice question)
Bill McGonigle
bill at bfccomputing.com
Mon Apr 5 12:11:38 EDT 2010
On 03/31/2010 07:22 PM, Benjamin Scott wrote:
> Something which I've long thought should be done but which no
> mainstream OS GUI I've seen does well is increasing screen resolution
> to increase quality of rendering while keeping the human information
> density per inch around the same
OSX has been working towards this for a while - in 10.5 most of the
plumbing was there, but developers still need to use it. Yet smart UI
isn't only about stretching - chat with some folks who are porting
iPhone apps to iPad (it does the resolution/stretching thing properly
but that also leads to horrifying UI's).
Parts of KDE and Gnome can do similar things, but getting apps +
renderers + window managers to work together (and then have a reliable
KMS EDI to work from...) is a tall order.
Windows 7 is also capable, I've heard, should developers wish to program
for it. I've seen folks using some of the Dells with 15.4" screens at
1920x1200 (140dpi) with Windows apps and can't understand how they do it.
But once all those pieces are working together you'll still view a
webpage where the designer has specified everything in 'px'. I try to
do my best to use percentages and em's but the large majority of the web
doesn't. There are a few edge cases where zooming isn't the right thing
to do, but for most it is. But how to get the users to understand?
(it's likely not a solvable program algorithmically). Maybe the people
who need to understand pixel-perfect content are the type who will know
how to switch modes.
It was more than 5 years ago that IBM was demo'ing 200dpi LCD screens.
But it's not surprising to me that they haven't moved to production with
them because the market still has to be really small. Speaking of
small, IIRC some of the higher quality handheld devices are up to
170-ish dpi.
-Bill
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Bill McGonigle, Owner
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