[Texmacs-dev] Screen/printer resolution behaviour

[Norbert Nemec]

Hi there,

I cannot really determine how TeXmacs currently handles the screen resolution 
setting, but it seems strange to me.

Please correct me on any of the following:

* The printer resolution is set to 600dpi.

* "shrinking factor 1" seems so mean that a screen with 600dpi is assumed, 
resulting in a huge display.

* I am using a monitor that does 115 dpi, so shrinking factor 5 is roughly 
correct. For actual typing, lower factors are more comfortable to me.


This definitely is confusing to any newcomer. Unfortunately, fractional 
shrinking factors are not available and would probably mean tremendous 
overhead. So the best we can do:
* determine the actual screen resolution (my X server knows I have 115 dpi)
* calulate the ideal shrinking factor (5.22)
* take the next integer as default shrinking factor (5)
* call this "zoom" 100%, so people know intuitively what they get.
* offer the possible alternatives: 500%, 250%, 166%, 125%, 83%, 71%, 62%...
* offer a magnifying glass button in the toolbar, as people know it from dumb 
old MSWord etc...

This way, people might still wonder, why only certain zoom factors are 
possible, but at least they don't have to do calculations to get a feeling 
what the factors mean. A few may notice that 100% is not exact, but they'll 
learn to live with it. At the moment, most people have 100dpi screens, but 
that's only, because too many programs (like TeXmacs) assume that...

BTW: How much efford would it mean to implement an overview mode? I.e. a page 
view, where the individual pages are arranged in columns? Basically, I would 
assume that it means mostly shifting around a few pixmaps. Of course, editing 
in that mode will be awefully slow, but for my 60p diploma thesis it would 
definitely have been a neat feature.

Ciao,
Nobbi

-- 
______________________Norbert Nemec <address@hidden>

    Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany            
    Institut für Theoretische Physik III             
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