Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Eric Sosman Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Is there something better than ComponentListener on Resized Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 20:38:58 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: <419a414e-356f-4d1c-ab98-cc6613081bcd@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2013 00:39:00 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx05.eternal-september.org; posting-host="0d73d8cc209bff1c6395088b400d0605"; logging-data="20046"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19EF4sNcIKZZ9GeytN/oaCr" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.0 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:4+UNiy2z4TMOdtlq6++0PCAXRjY= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:25401 On 9/30/2013 8:10 PM, John B. Matthews wrote: > In article , > Eric Sosman 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. > > 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