[rescue] Rescued: SGI Visual Workstation 320

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, Nathan Raymond wrote:

> But of course to really make the best use of a high DPI screen, we 
> need an operating system that dynamically scales the whole UI based
> on the physical screen size and pixel resolution so that you don't
> loose your cursor and get WYSIWYG etc.  Yet, NOBODY has created a
> GUI like that.

Windows can actually do this.  To my knowledge, the only thing that
doesn't scale is the mouse cursor.  The option to specify a nondefault
resolution (in dpi) for the GUI is buried in the advanced display
properties dialog.  I think it's called "Font Size" or something.  It
redefines the dialog unit[0] and TrueType scaling factor based on an
onscreen ruler that you can drag.

> It's not hard,

So do it. :)

> and it pisses me off that no one has done it (especially Apple, who by 
> using DisplayPDF and introducing a new OS had the best opportunity to 
> impliment it).

Indeed.  I'm sure the whole thing is scalable except for the constant
menubar and titlebar heights.


[0] The "dialog unit" is the basic windows unit of measuring for
     widgets.  It's based on the size of certain characters in the system
     font (which, as of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, is a TrueType font
     instead of "MS Sans Serif").
-- 
Jonathan Patschke )"We're Germans and we use Unix.  That's a combination
Elgin, TX        (  of two demographic groups known to have no sense of
USA               ) humour whatsoever." - Hanno Mueller in de.c.o.u.p