OpenEuphoria

1. Scaling Euphoria MS Windows applications to font DPI

• Posted by Andrew Katz <Akatz712 at gmail.com> May 17, 2007
• 689 views

Both Judith and Quark have complained about my Magic Designer application
looking ugly. And the reason why this is, is because I designed it using my
computer display at 96 DPI, and they both have theirs set at 120 DPI. So, I set
mine at 120 DPI:

Right click on Desktop and select Properties.
Click Settings.
Click Advanced.
Set to Large Size (120 DPI)
You will need to restart Windows.

This issue is a HUGE one. I have noticed that some applications change and
others do not! And some web pages change to the correct DPI and others do not.
And in some cases, like Thunderbird email application, the user has the ability
to adjust field lengths once they have established their DPI for fonts.

With Magic Designer, I had carefully sized things using my standard 96 DPI to
maximize the drawing area, for people with a 800 x 600 display. And now that I
switched to 120 DPI, I can see where my application fails and where it is ugly.

For example, I got Derek to write a status line library for me (he never
finished it). And one of the things he does is to size the height based upon the
font.
lHeight = win:getTextHeight(pParent, "M") + 10
However, the widths of the subfields in my status line are too small in 120 DPI,
and the information disappears at times. This is a case of an unusable
application (well it really is still usable since one can click buttons, but the
proper use is interfered with). The most obvious problem is that text is
truncated all over the place (inside of edit fields, label fields, labels of
controls, caption of buttons).

I found this document online, which discusses how to write applications which
scale properly for DPI fonts. They say it is simple, but from the point of view
of writing in Euphoria, I do not see it as simple.

Take a look at this: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms969894.aspx

I was thinking of writing 2 versions of my program. One for 120 DPI and one for
96 DPI. And let the user pick which one they will run. But of course, 120 is not
the only other possible DPI. Another solution would be for me to detect the DPI
on start up and make all of the internal adjustments (which would be the
differences between my 96 DPI original version, and my soon to be coded 120 DPI
version).

How would you recommend I approach this problem?

Andy Katz
B.S. Computer Science, 1978
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

3. Re: Scaling Euphoria MS Windows applications to font DPI

• Posted by Matt Lewis <matthewwalkerlewis at gmail.com> May 17, 2007
• 662 views

Andrew Katz wrote:
> 
> Both Judith and Quark have complained about my Magic Designer application
> looking
> ugly. And the reason why this is, is because I designed it using my computer
> display at 96 DPI, and they both have theirs set at 120 DPI. So, I set mine
> at 120 DPI:
 
<snip>
 
> How would you recommend I approach this problem?

Take a look at XControls, now maintained by Greg Haberek.  They have a 
control that will automatically resize controls.

http://www.freewebtown.com/ghaberek/xControls2.zip

wxEuphoria uses wxWidgets-based classes called sizers to do a similar task.
They're a bit more flexible than the XControls geometry control.

Matt

5. Re: Scaling Euphoria MS Windows applications to font DPI

• Posted by Pete Stoner <stoner.pete at gmail.com> May 17, 2007
• 662 views
• Last edited May 18, 2007

Andrew Katz wrote:
> 
> Both Judith and Quark have complained about my Magic Designer application
> looking
> ugly. And the reason why this is, is because I designed it using my computer
> display at 96 DPI, and they both have theirs set at 120 DPI. So, I set mine
> at 120 DPI:
> 
> Right click on Desktop and select Properties.
> Click Settings.
> Click Advanced.
> Set to Large Size (120 DPI)
> You will need to restart Windows.
> 
> This issue is a HUGE one. I have noticed that some applications change and
> others
> do not! And some web pages change to the correct DPI and others do not. And
> in some cases, like Thunderbird email application, the user has the ability
> to adjust field lengths once they have established their DPI for fonts.
> 
> With Magic Designer, I had carefully sized things using my standard 96 DPI to
> maximize the drawing area, for people with a 800 x 600 display. And now that
> I switched to 120 DPI, I can see where my application fails and where it is
> ugly.
> 
snipped
> 
> Andy Katz
> B.S. Computer Science, 1978
> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

Hi Andy, 
I've also seen and hate this problem.. I didn't find that particular article so
I haven't tried switching fonts. The code below is my (poor!) attempt at a fix,
just change your "Create" calls to the dpiCreate. I would be interested in
hearing if it helps your application at different DPIs.
Note the xGetDeviceCaps function does a divide by 96, this is because I design
at that setting, so have your window looking good at 96DPI then try switching to
a higher value..

include win32lib.ew

global constant
Centre   = "Centre"     -- for correct window centering on screen (win32lib
    doesn't do this right for child windows - Note UK spelling of 'centre'!!)
 
constant 
    xPARAMS = 1,
    yPARAMS = 2,
    cxPARAMS = 3,
    cyPARAMS = 4,
    X = 1,
    Y = 2   

atom dc
atom cxDpi, cyDpi

dc = getDC ( Screen )
cxDpi=(w32Func(xGetDeviceCaps,{dc,LOGPIXELSX})/96)
cyDpi=(w32Func(xGetDeviceCaps,{dc,LOGPIXELSY})/96)
releaseDC(dc)

integer centerScreenX, centerScreenY
sequence ScreenSize
ScreenSize = getRect(Screen)
centerScreenX = floor( ScreenSize[3]/2 )
centerScreenY = floor( ScreenSize[4]/2 )

global function DI(integer Orientation, object pixels)
    if Orientation = X then
        return floor(pixels * cxDpi)
    elsif Orientation = Y then
        return floor(pixels * cyDpi)
    end if
    end function

global function dpiCreateEx(integer pControl, sequence caption, atom pOwner,
object x, object y, object cx, object cy, object styleFlags, object
            exFlags )
sequence params
sequence IgnoreControls -- controls not needing change
params = {x, y, cx, cy}

IgnoreControls = {Menu, MenuItem}

    if not find(pControl, IgnoreControls) then                  
if pControl != Window then  -- if control is a Window then leave
        position stuff alone
        -- chk for relational positioning i.e. ix X < 1 then 
        -- x position must be a 0.x (%) value so leave alone
            if integer(x) and x > 1 then 
                params[xPARAMS] = DI(X, x)
-- also handle w32lib constant calls like 'Center' and
                {w32AltEdge. -20}
            elsif sequence(x) and atom(x[2]) and length(x) = 2 then
                params[xPARAMS] = x
                params[xPARAMS][2] = DI(X, x[2])
            end if  
            if integer(y) and y > 1 then 
                params[yPARAMS] = DI(Y, y) 
            elsif sequence(y) and atom(y[2]) and length(y) = 2 then
                params[yPARAMS] = y
                params[yPARAMS][2] = DI(Y, y[2])
            end if
        end if
        if integer(cx) and cx > 1 then 
            params[cxPARAMS] = DI(X, cx) 
        elsif sequence(cx) and atom(cx[2]) and length(cx) = 2 then
            params[cxPARAMS] = cx
            params[cxPARAMS][2] = DI(X, cx[2])
        end if
        if pControl != SortedCombo then         
            if integer(cy) and cy > 1 then 
                params[cyPARAMS] = DI(Y, cy) 
            elsif sequence(cy) and atom(cy[2]) and length(cy) = 2 then
                params[cyPARAMS] = cy
                params[cyPARAMS][2] = DI(Y, cy[2])      
            end if
        else
            params[cyPARAMS] = cy 
        end if
    end if
    
if pControl = Window then   -- if control is a 'centered' Window then center
    it!
if equal(x, Centre) then params[xPARAMS] = centerScreenX - floor(
        params[cxPARAMS]/2 ) end if
if equal(y, Centre) then params[yPARAMS] = centerScreenY - floor(
        params[cyPARAMS]/2 ) end if
    end if
        
return createEx( pControl, caption, pOwner, params[xPARAMS],
    params[yPARAMS],
            params[cxPARAMS], params[cyPARAMS], styleFlags, exFlags)

    end function

global function dpiCreate(integer pControl, sequence caption, atom pOwner,
            object x, object y, object cx, object cy, object styleFlags )
        
return dpiCreateEx( pControl, caption, pOwner, x, y, cx, cy, styleFlags,
        0)
         
end function

Regards PeteS

7. Re: Scaling Euphoria MS Windows applications to font DPI

• Posted by CChris <christian.cuvier at agriculture.gouv.fr> May 19, 2007
• 634 views

C Bouzy wrote:
> 
> Hi Andrew,
> 
> I do not think you should worry that much about people who set their DPI
> higher
> than 96. Very few people even know how to set their DPI higher than 96 so I
> don’t see this being a huge issue. 
> I just tried setting my DPI higher and running Nexus Radio, and most of the
> fonts remained the same except a few fonts that are beyond my control. Try
> using
> setFont along with a TrueType font and that should fix the issue.
> 
> 
> "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you always got."

You are probably right: not many people will change their DPI. However, the
question is: how many machine types are there around with various DPI values?
Desktop boxes and laptops, for instance, are not likely to share the same
values.

I change it on a regular basis, so as to find shortcuts and other files on
the desktop which were positioned offscreen under XP.

CChris

9. Re: Scaling Euphoria MS Windows applications to font DPI

• Posted by C Bouzy <CBouzy at Egisca.com> May 19, 2007
• 659 views

Hello Andrew,

I am not sure where I was mistaken and/or confused? The point I was making is
that 96 DPI is the standard DPI and users rarely change their DPI to a higher
value, so I personally wouldn’t put extra time into coding to be compatible with
users who are using higher DPI values. I also wouldn't code my apps to be
compatible with operating systems prior to Windows 2000 or users with screen
resolutions lower than 1024x768. As I mentioned in my previous post setFont along
with a TrueType font should override the users DPI settings. Here are some
interesting stats: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Use the Next button above the stats to view the stats for OS, Display…etc..etc

~ C Bouzy

"If you do what you have always done, you will get what you always got."