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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE screen resolution policy
From:       Tom Chance <tomchance () gmx ! net>
Date:       2003-12-25 16:52:35
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On Thursday 25 Dec 2003 2:55 pm, Frans Englich wrote:
> I run KDE HEAD on a 15" monitor in 800x600 and some KDE applications are
> simply not usable in the sense that dialogs expand outside the screen and
> can not be resized to fit inside the screen.
...
> What do people think? Is it a good idea? Do we need such a
> policy/guideline? Pros/Cons?

I think that it seems, at first, like a fairly simple problem to solve, but it 
isn't. For one thing, 800x600 is too high; I know a few people who are 
partially sighted and who keep their monitors at 640x480 to make things more 
readable for them. For another thing, usually the problem is simply having so 
much information to display in one window, especially with the control center 
modules. Either KDE and Qt need to be more intelligent about remapping the 
layout when it doesn't fit, or they need to provide scrollbars on all widgets 
when they are too large, or all KDE applications need to put very small 
amounts of information in each "window".

I'd say the first solution seems the best, though as somebody with only 
occasional Qt experience I'm not sure it'd be easy. Number two could be a 
better quick solution, though doubtless too big to get into 3.2

One thing is for sure though - it looks to me like a major accessibility and 
usability problem that really needs fixing either in the KDE architecture or 
the KIG, as you say.

Tom
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