multiple screens vs. one big one was Re: Text file description of GUI...

Carlos,

Think of it this way: You can see a movie on a drive-in screen, a
movie theatre screen, your television, or your mediaplayer window.

Now let's say the movie has some information you need to read easily
(a product placement "ad" you paid big bucks for<G>). On the large
screens, you can easily do this. On the smaller screens you can't see
things very clearly...

So what Sean and I are saying is that we would rather see "less" on
EACH screen (of a multiple screen interface), so that each "part" ON
that screen can be larger. (like commercial controls)

Compared to the other two options currently available on PC-based
controllers: All on one screen, better have a big monitor, or VERY
good eyes. OR, All on one screen, but we only get to see part of that
screen. (Since our screen resolution is smaller than the screen was
designed for.)

For example, In Master5, it is all on one screen, so with a small
monitor(assuming the small monitor can EVEN DO 1024x768!), it is like
watching the movie on a tiny tv (or, since Art has included scroll
bars when screen resolution is less than 1024x768; it becomes similar
to looking at the large movie screen through the cut out bottom of
a "cereal" box...(only seeing part at a time)

So it's a question of "requiring" a large screen to be functional,
vs. "allowing" a large screen to be more useful.

When you change/increase the screen settings on your computer
monitor, you are doing it for one of two reasons (or both):
1)To make each object bigger. 2)To fit "more" objects into your view.

Does this make sense?

Ballendo

P.S. I had asked Art during the "early days" to use 640x480 in his
design, but he said he "needed" 1024x768. Maybe If I had understood
the reason he wanted it was because he was putting everything on one
screen, I could have "made my case" differently.

At any rate, numerous "usability" studies have shown that multiple
screens are less likely to result in errors of input(and mistakes in
interpretation of output); which is certainly a concern for this
product (a cnc control).

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Carlos Guillermo" <carlos@v...> wrote:
> Huh? I'm confused. Didn't we solve this problem a long time ago
> with VB, Visual C, etc.? I thought somewhere there was
> functionality that could just take everything and scale it to fit
> in a certain size window. I mean, somewhere within windows, there
> is knowledge of the screen size and/or resolution, or you couldn't
> "maximize" your windows. Wouldn't this make more sense than
> trying to pick one size to fit all?
>
> Carlos Guillermo
> VERVE Engineering & Design
>