> > Oh I've heard their arguments, I even agree with them. It's their METHODS > > I don't approve off. > > Works pretty well... all gnome apps more or less feel the same. I can > use all of them with minimal learning. Which should be the point, cause > I dont use the comp to play around with fonts but to get some actual > work done. > > Note that your actual problem comes from the fact that you use a > pixel-based widget placement scheme. Your app translated into chinese > will not look good with a pixel-based widget placement scheme either. Or > hebrew, or any of the "double-width" languages. Or a top-down language. > Or on a 10000x10000 pixel monitor. Or on a 320x240 pixel monitor. It > will look crap on anything _but_ exactly the system you developed it on. > This is bad.
Right I'm gonna quit the flamewar (which is OT) and talk about this (which isn't). Actually I've done quite a bit to reduce the problem this is. For starters I created in olpack(http://silentcoder.co.za/viewsvn/viewsvn.php?project=lazarus&path=%2Folpack%2F) the screensize component, these particular apps, by their very nature are used alone, so they run maximized. Since lazarus doesn't (yet?) obey ws_maximized, I use the screensize to get the current X geometry, and tell auto-resize my main-window to follow it, relying on the window manager to limit me to the REAL usable space (e.g. not over a protected taskbar) (btw. screensize uses xlib directly so it has no new dependancies and is incredibly low on overhead). Next, I only have one window. My "dialogs" are in fact groupboxes which I use to create a very good fake of an encapsulated dialog - the whole thing looks very nice. Using anchors, they scale with the window. So I am pretty much scaling everything natively anyway. The trouble comes with the icon-buttons on top (TBitButtons) which actually open the different dialogs. These babies cannnot just scale freely, they must be constant in vertical size (so I can at least have a constant .top value for dialogs) and the must at their smallest size fit into the window all next to each other WITHOUT scrolling even at 640x480 - which is the lowest resolution I really DO need to support (there is something to be said for not wasting time on what really isn't ever going to affect YOUR users). Perhaps some screenshots will clarify what I mean better: http://www.silentcoder.co.za/tiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=15 Notice the buttons on the user page - at 640x480 they just about fill up all available space horizontally. So there is nothing for it, the font on them has to fit to THEM not the other way around. I don't know how any OTHER type of placement policy could possibly address this (though I'm happy to learn). One thing I am adamant on is that any app which scrolls horizontally is badly designed. Even vertical scroll should be avoided if at all possible. If it HAS to be there, it must be limited to data presentation. A user should NEVER need to scroll to find an application control, controls that are not clearly visible are by default not user friendly. Ciao A.J. -- A.J. Venter Chief Software Architect OpenLab International http://www.getopenlab.com http://www.silentcoder.co.za _________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
