Comments on: How the Preferences have grown http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown The personal weblog of Peter Hosey. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:02:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Peter Hosey http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-6517 Peter Hosey Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:14:26 +0000 http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-6517 I actually prefer TextWrangler's preferences, mainly because the controls aren't tiny—they're regular-size controls. I don't see how either one is less keyboard-navigable, since neither one supports Full Keyboard Access. (Only the list of panes and the text fields accept focus, in both apps.) OS X's increase in control size is probably due to increased resolution of displays. The screen on the original Mac, as all Mac gurus know, was 72 dpi. My monitor—a 17″ Apple Studio Display LCD—is 96 dpi, and some monitors are even denser than that. Upping the menubar from 20px to 22px and the system font from 12pt to 13pt makes sense. When resolution independence comes (*FANFARE*!), OS X will probably be fixed at either 72 or 96 dpi (the latter being Windows' choice of assumed resolution). You'll input your screen's physical size if OS X can't guess (blog post coming on that!), and OS X will set the scale factor to (your dpi)/(target dpi). I actually prefer TextWrangler's preferences, mainly because the controls aren't tiny—they're regular-size controls. I don't see how either one is less keyboard-navigable, since neither one supports Full Keyboard Access. (Only the list of panes and the text fields accept focus, in both apps.)

OS X's increase in control size is probably due to increased resolution of displays. The screen on the original Mac, as all Mac gurus know, was 72 dpi. My monitor—a 17″ Apple Studio Display LCD—is 96 dpi, and some monitors are even denser than that. Upping the menubar from 20px to 22px and the system font from 12pt to 13pt makes sense.

When resolution independence comes (*FANFARE*!), OS X will probably be fixed at either 72 or 96 dpi (the latter being Windows' choice of assumed resolution). You'll input your screen's physical size if OS X can't guess (blog post coming on that!), and OS X will set the scale factor to (your dpi)/(target dpi).

]]> By: Nicholas Riley http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-6512 Nicholas Riley Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:25:04 +0000 http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-6512 Because, obviously, a preferences UI that is not very keyboard-navigable (or one that doesn't let you see everything at once) is an improvement, right? I really dislike how the OS X UI has grown to favor gigantic windows. It's not that long ago that Apple sold the iBook with 1024x768 resolution (and I have one, even). That was one of my favorite Mac OS features from way back - most applications were very careful to not use too much screen space for anything. At least most apps (those I use, at least :) let you hide toolbars and other screen-wasting crap, which is better than on certain other platforms. (I recall trying to use X11 apps under NetBSD on my SE/30 at 512x342...) Because, obviously, a preferences UI that is not very keyboard-navigable (or one that doesn't let you see everything at once) is an improvement, right?

I really dislike how the OS X UI has grown to favor gigantic windows. It's not that long ago that Apple sold the iBook with 1024x768 resolution (and I have one, even). That was one of my favorite Mac OS features from way back - most applications were very careful to not use too much screen space for anything.

At least most apps (those I use, at least :) let you hide toolbars and other screen-wasting crap, which is better than on certain other platforms. (I recall trying to use X11 apps under NetBSD on my SE/30 at 512x342...)

]]> By: Jesper http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-5549 Jesper Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:44:53 +0000 http://boredzo.org/blog/archives/2007-01-10/how-the-preferences-have-grown#comment-5549 What amazes me about this is that TextWrangler still uses the OS 9-ish layout. You'd think they be used to toolbars and tabs views by now. What amazes me about this is that TextWrangler still uses the OS 9-ish layout. You'd think they be used to toolbars and tabs views by now.

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