kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

Kicad is evolving to a point where it can provide value for corporate 
users. In theory, if we have more corporate users, there will be more 
corporate support. For corporate users to be interested, the program 
cannot look like it was designed for a screen resolution of 600 x 400.

Hobbyists often do not have high res screens. So to some, there is a 
conflict of interest here. 

Also, as we have seen this week (Marco and I both) it is *easier for 
developers* to design a dialog window or a toolbar if space constraints 
are not so limited. 

Let me call the "Minimum Recommended Screen Resolution" our MRSR.


Factors favoring a large MRSR:
--------------------------------------------

1) Corporate adoption of Kicad.
2) Ease of development.


Factors favoring a smaller MRSR:
--------------------------------------------------

1) Larger potential base of hobbyists with limited computers.


We need an MRSR. This will allow us to do testing at that resolution, 
and to design dialogs that are *guaranteed* to look good on that kind of 
computer.

I suggest that for year 2010 it be

1280x1024 pixels


and that we put this into UIpolicy.txt, and that we revisit this in 2011 
and possibly increase it then.

I am happy to go higher if enough folks want to voice their opinion on 
this. I would not be happy to go smaller, and although I could be over 
powered on this, it might affect my ability to contribute meaningful 
code (as I feel it would affect all developer's such ability), and I 
feel it would affect corporate adoption negatively.

Share your thoughts, then we can put the number into UIpolicy.txt and 
start screening dialog windows for this. Somebody may end up being 
unhappy, count on it.

But we need to publish this MRSR and put it into UIpolicy.txt and onto 
the user WIKI.


Thanks,

Dick