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Widescreen laptops are dumb

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Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#101

Post by kalleboo »

zeveb wrote: post #30
strmpnk wrote: post #15

The big problem I have started seeing is web design assuming you always browse using a maximized window. Combine this with a prevalent market of wide screens and most sites won’t look right without at least 1200px. So once you put anything like a toolbar or inspector on this side, you have a problem. Designers of many sites I have to use daily seem to assume I’d never want to see two windows at once, let alone rearra…

> The big problem I have started seeing is web design assuming you always browse using a maximized window. That's been a problem for roughly twenty years now. Way back in the 1990s (on a 4:3 CRT, natch) I started out with half the screen dedicated to my browser and the other half left free for other things (back in those days it was normal to have many windows open at once on a Mac screen — weird how we have so many…

It was a Windowsism, but I guess these days it's a smartphone/tabletism

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#102

Post by davidhyde »

The article didn't mention why 16:9 screens are chosen over 16:10 screens. You have to make 5% less pixels (screen area) which is a direct cost saving. You can still market your screen at 13" but make it for less money. The more vendors that go for this cost saving approach, the more you gain from economies of scale which drives down the cost further (or drives up the cost of 16:10). Since people look at screen diagonal over screen area, they are usually none the wiser.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#103

Post by slantyyz »

petecox wrote: post #43

Aspect ratios are one thing but a number of tasks are just better in portrait. For that purpose I have a desktop monitor stand that rotates 90 degrees. Trickier on a laptop but can't someone design a 'convertible' with a rotate-able kickstand, so that a detachable typecover snaps into place regardless of whether the screen is in landscape or portrait?

>> Aspect ratios are one thing but a number of tasks are just better in portrait.

Aspect ratios and orientation are moot if you have more real estate and pixels.

If you were to have something like a 55" curved 8K monitor and good eyesight (or glasses), aspect ratio would be less important to you, since that screen would cover most of your field of view while still providing you with high pixel density.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#105

Post by kalleboo »

cup-of-tea wrote: post #31

I don't know why this article is only about laptops. It's difficult to buy a square desktop monitor these days too. I've been complaining about it for years. Widescreen is a terrible shape for code. I don't need more horizontal space, I need more lines. What am I going to use horizontal space for? People say turn the monitor vertical but that's horrible too. The screen is designed to be viewed at a certain angle for…

Widescreen was great for having multiple pages/windows open until the recent trend of apps going from having multiple windows to one window (ushered on by Windows (people people have been fullscreening since day one), webapps (where windowing isn't well-supported) and mobile/tablet-centric design).

I really despise how the Xcode team thinks that iTunes was a good inspiration for a UI.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#106

Post by Zak »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #82
cup-of-tea wrote: post #31

I don't know why this article is only about laptops. It's difficult to buy a square desktop monitor these days too. I've been complaining about it for years. Widescreen is a terrible shape for code. I don't need more horizontal space, I need more lines. What am I going to use horizontal space for? People say turn the monitor vertical but that's horrible too. The screen is designed to be viewed at a certain angle for…

At work, my widescreen monitor is perfect for showing two columns of code on the screen. That may be a reflection on the cleanliness of our codebase though...

Are you using an IDE that has sidebars or other elements on the screen than code?

In my setup with Emacs, a 1600x1200 screen and 12px monospaced font, I have two 86 character wide windows side by side. To add another column without changing something else, I would need a 2400px wide screen.

I wouldn't object to a large 2:1 aspect screen on my desktop, but it makes for an unwieldy shape for a laptop.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#107

Post by tomjohnneill »

lamename wrote: post #48

Screens are visual, and human vision is biased to search lateral space over vertical space. This is due to the nature of humans' visuospatial limitations. We're largely 2d animals in our movement: front/back & left/right, not so much up down. This is different from animals like birds and fish who constantly have to navigate all 3 dimensions to catch prey and avoid death. We aren't ignorant of vertical space, but hori…

You can use this to your advantage and always win hide and seek by climbing up a tree

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#108

Post by Zak »

lordCarbonFiber wrote: post #75
cup-of-tea wrote: post #31

I don't know why this article is only about laptops. It's difficult to buy a square desktop monitor these days too. I've been complaining about it for years. Widescreen is a terrible shape for code. I don't need more horizontal space, I need more lines. What am I going to use horizontal space for? People say turn the monitor vertical but that's horrible too. The screen is designed to be viewed at a certain angle for…

Any modern (ie IPS) screen has a viewing angle wide enough for vertical to look perfectly fine. Wide screen plus a tiling window manager will change your life. Going back to the days of 4:3 sounds awful.

My issue with a laptop is that for the screen to have a wider aspect ratio, the whole computer has to be bigger, or the screen has to be shorter. With a desktop, it's much easier to have multiple displays or very large displays and the aspect ratio is less important.

Re: Widescreen laptops are dumb

#110

Post by Zak »

bsharitt wrote: post #34

I find 4:3 too square for both tablets and laptops as it seriously detracts from watching widescreen video content such as nearly all newer movies and TV shows, but 16:9 does have seem a bit too wide compared to height, especially on tablets when you try to use it in portrait mode and it seems ridiculously tall. I've found 16:10 to be a better than 16:9, and while I haven't had a 3:2 laptop, the 3:2 Nook HD+ from a f…

I don't find it to detract seriously; it just reduces the display area. Since a laptop is fairly close to my eyes, and easy to move closer, I don't consider this a big problem.
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