mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Eli <address@hidden>]

On 2013 Jul 2 Tue 1:20 pm, Miguel de Benito Delgado wrote:

This is a known problem (and has a bug report here: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?34276 )

I read the comments on the bug report. I was unable to create an account to comment there, so I will respond here.

It appears that the status bar font size is hard coded, and the focus bar font size is hard coded. This is the Wrong Thing.

In Windows 95 and later, the user can change the GUI appearance element by element. I can, for instance, change the color and width of window borders; I do not need administrator status to do it -- it is a per-user setting. I can also fool with the font weight, icon size, the spacing between desktop icons, and just about every element of the GUI.

There is some concern about icons and text in the same toolbar. This does not seem to be an issue with other programs. Whatever the merit of the design, it does me no good if I can't read the toolbar items. (In any case, the exact appearance of the icons does not matter to me at this point -- in TeXmacs, adjacent icons are so similar to each other that I have to hover over them to read the tooltip to know what the icon is.)

I have clients whose vision cannot be corrected to 20/20. If they don't want (or can't afford) MAGic or ZoomText or the like, they will often select a "High Contrast" Theme and also make a significant increase in size of certain window elements. Regarding, for example, the font used in the menus in any program that uses the OS to display menus, the user can select any font Windows has, bold or plain, and the font color. The user can select any font size from 6 pt to 24 pt in 1-pt increments. Giving the user 2 or 3 choices will not suffice -- how are you to know what the user needs? The only way to respect the user's needs or wishes is to use the OS GUI elements and sizes as much as possible.

Programmers should assume that some users will personalize their OS GUI for whatever reason. GUI elements should not be hard coded by the application programmer. They should follow the OS wherever possible. Doing otherwise disrespects your own users.

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——Eli