SR> Does any else have problems deploying apps on machines with different
 SR> screen resolutions?
 SR> Does anyone have any points to ponder in this regard?
Don't get me started!!! :-)  This is one of my biggest gripes
with Windows.
First off, I got a complaint from a friend the other day about a
program that I sent to him.  He said that it was too small on
the screen.  I developed it on a 15" monitor and he has a 17"
monitor.
The big problem, though, is that in character-based systems the
programmer knows exactly how many rows and columns he is dealing
with.  He can design the program's interface to fit well on the
screen.  He knows where windows will be popped up, how big they
will be, and what they will cover up.
Windows is a terribly-designed system that is based on pixels
rather than characters or screen area.  There are at least five
different resolutions so there is no practical way the
programmer can design the screens for various resolutions at
which the program may be running.  One of the worst implications
is that the user often has to scroll horizontally to see
everything.  This is obviously a horrible design.
To make it worse, the user may have the window maximized,
windowed, or even resize the window.  And to make it even worse,
the user may more the windows around, or have to move windows
around to see things.  The net result is that the user has to
spend much of his time in the frustrating procedure of
scrolling, resizing windows, moving windows, and closing windows
- all of which can be handled automatically for the user (via
proper program design) in a character-based system.
And you would think that changing the screen resolution to a
higher pixel count would keep everything the same size on the
screen but use a higher resolution font to improve readability.
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  It makes everything smaller and harder to
read.  So the advance in technology to go to higher resolutions
is a step backwards!
Some of these problems could have been avoided if someone had
actually put some thought into the design of Windows.  That is,
rather than specifying the height in pixels, make it where the
programmer can say "make the height 5% of the screen height and
the width 10% of the screen width" - independent of the screen
resolution being used.
Jud McCranie  jud.mccranie@camcat.com
... The ease of Pascal with the power of Pascal.
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