unity-design team mailing list archive

["Stefanos A." <stapostol@xxxxxxxxx>]

2011/11/19 Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>

> On 11/18/2011 11:03 AM, Stefanos A. wrote:
>
>> To my non-expert mind, not only do the guidelines contradict themselves
>> (fixed size 675x530 in order to fit on netbooks, but netbooks have only
>> 490px available), but they also add invalid constraints to large
>> monitors (invalid because a 1920x1080 monitor does not have the same
>> constraints as a 1024x600 one). Isn't this the very issue that resizable
>> windows are supposed to solve?
>>
>
> Not quite.
>
> A fixed size window that is smaller than it has to be on the current
> display, that has more content than fits in and thus requires scrolling, is
> quite simply idiotic.
>
> Such a too small window, but resizable, not fixed, is better but still
> inconvenient.
>
> The solution to too small, and smaller than they have to be at that,
> windows are larger windows, not resizable windows.
>
>
> An example that literally had me facepalm is the Shortcuts tab in Keyboard
> Preferences. There's a long list for Navigation that requires scrolling,
> yet the dialog takes less than halve of the height that it could, on my
> screen! I don't want to resize such a dialog. I want it to appear with the
> optimal size based on its content and the current screen size.
>
>
If this was a resizable window, you could simply drag it to the right or to
the left edge of the screen and it would automatically become optimal. A
good window manager will then remember the placement and size of the
window, solving the issue without any guesswork.

(Yes, finding the optimal size automatically is guesswork, since different
applications have different contents that might be optimal in different
layouts.)