[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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