Re: Is there something better than ComponentListener on Resized
On 9/30/2013 8:10 PM, John B. Matthews wrote:
In article <l2cpku$mau$1@dont-email.me>,
Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> wrote:
Perhaps it's time to ask a question: Why do you think it's a
good idea to prevent the user from arranging his own screen as he
pleases? Does your program understand the user's needs and
desires better than he himself does?
I've used such a program.
Did you enjoy it? ;-)
That is: Did you consider it a benefit, a point in the
program's favor, when the program's window resisted all your efforts
to make it larger? Did this behavior improve your experience of
using the program?
I too have used such a program, almost daily, and I do not enjoy it.
This example is somewhat contrived, but it gives the flavor of the
experience.
<http://stackoverflow.com/a/12532237/230513>
Yeah, although I was thinking more about "accessibility,"
as it's now often called. Somebody with vision difficulties
may well use a
M U C H L A R G E R F O N T
M U C H L A R G E R F O N T
M U C H L A R G E R F O N T
than the programmer gifted with good eyesight had anticipated.
The large-font user might not be pleased at being forced to
scroll back and forth and back and forth instead of just making
the damn' window wider.
Now, perhaps the programmer is foresighted enough to
calculate his NoBiggerThan dimension based on the chosen font
size (if that's straightforward; I don't know how well Java
font metrics interact with externally-imposed overrides).
But wouldn't it be simpler just to let the user adjust the
window to whatever dimensions he likes?
We programmers grow accustomed to issuing commands to our
computers, telling them what to do in every circumstance (the
entire art of debugging amounts to discovering how our own
commands differ from what we really meant). The tendency to
treat the users as extensions of our computers -- to command
them the same way we do the machines -- must be resisted.
Clusardi: If your goal proves difficult or even impossible
to achieve, that may not be entirely a Bad Thing. Try to look
on the bright side, and strike a blow for libertarianism.
--
Eric Sosman
esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid