Hi Paul,
Post by Paul S. PersonPost by Andi.BNot 4k. Two standard 24" with 1920x1200 each. If snap finally would allow multi head and
4k displays maybe I buy one. But I fear there is still some time to save money for that.
Argh. One reason why I switched from DOS to OS/2 some 25 years ago was the gui. About 30
years ago (time flies) I was impressed by codeview and the like. But today I enjoy sizable
graphic windows ;-)
1. In Windows, the wdw, "Change Font" launches a font-selector window
which is subtly different from the wdw windows. It may be
system-provided.
This menu entry is disabled in the OS/2 version. Guess for good reasons. Probably not
implemented in the OS/2 code path. I guess the code is somewhere in the commonui files.
But I'm still not very familiar with all this code. Have to read the wiki...
Post by Paul S. Person2. The OS/2 API, IIRC from my reading (I never got around to using
it), is quite similar to the Windows API. If you have the necessary
info, translating from Windows API to OS/2 API might be possible.
3. The OS/2 documentation used to be freely available on Hobbes;
perhaps it still is. At least, that is where I seem to remember I got
it. Both the 32-bit API docs and the 16-bit API docs for those APIs
that were still, at that time, 16-bit (IIRC: mouse, keyboard, maybe a
few others).
I think all the necessary OS/2 documentation is in the OS/2 toolkit (os2tk45). When I find
the appropriate sources and find enough time ;-) I think I could add the necessary code.
But given the very limited time I fear I can make a quick hack at most.
Post by Paul S. Person4. I don't suppose OS/2 has, say, a screen magnifier available that
might make the wdw window (and its fonts) /larger/?
AFAIK SNAP video driver does have something like that. But I need it the other way - the
usual OS/2 system font is very big on middle to higher resolution TFT monitors (1400 x XX
and up). Each character wastes so much space and looks ugly to me. There are ways to
change the 'standard system' font. But TTBOMK they all have drawbacks. SNAP offers
additional system wide font/DPI settings. But as above it's not easy to find a good
setting for all different kind of programs and system menus. In case someone is interested
at the end of this post are the comments in my config.sys about that. In a perfect world
every OS/2 application should honor the usual drag & drop font changing method. But far to
many programmers saved the time to implement this feature :-(
Post by Paul S. Person5. Can you set different resolutions for each monitor? If so, you
could set the monitor you use for wdw to a /lower resolution/.
Unfortunately a feature no OS/2 graphic driver supports. But that reminds me to another
work around - firing up VBOX and run wdw on the WIN client inside. But although I want to
remotely debug another machine with wdw I fear the network setup 'VBOX client - OS/2 host
- another OS/2 MUT' will add another pile of problems....
Post by Paul S. PersonI know, I know, everybody wants to use the highest resolution
possible. Suggesting a lower resolution is ... heresy.
You name it ;-)
I'm used to work with at least 2 big monitors as I need a lot of application windows
concurrently. I would like to use 2 monitors (1920x1200) only for the editor windows If I
could. And if we had graphic drivers for higher resolution monitors I'm sure I'll find
ways of working to fill them all with important stuff :-) Of course personal taste.
Post by Paul S. PersonHowever, IIRC, Windows and OS/2 respond to changes in resolution in
1) Windows rescales everything so that the desktop is the same as it
was before, just with more detail available for images and videos
because of the higher resolution. It may also switch the pixel size
used for icons which provide multiple pixel sizes.
2) OS/2 rescales pretty much nothing, allowing you to add new items to
the desktop without overlapping, but reducing the original objects in
size.
If this is true, reducing the resolution should increase the size of
wdw and all its parts, including the fonts. With no pixellation.
Changing resolution on OS/2 changes default fonts sizes this is true. There are also some
settings for DPI with further influence the whole appearance (fonts/dialog
sizes/boxes/...). So you're right, changing resolution would produce different look.
OS/2 is pretty good in preserving your desktop icons position even when changing
resolutions. Something windoze never could handle properly. Every time I ran into a
problem like 'win does not detect the second monitor' or changes resolution for other
reasons I'm so happy that this is not the case with my ancient OS. OS/2 scales the icons
x, y position which may lead to overlapping icons when switching from high resolution to
lower resolution. But if you switch back to the higher resolution all icons are in place
where they where before. This Win rearranging feature (I call it bug) reprogrammed most
Win users to let the OS sort the icons all the time. Cause sooner or later Win does it
anyway. I never understand why people let a machine rearrange their workspace. YMMV. But
I'm old school and still think my personal computer has to work the way I like it. Not
someone at Redmond decided in his very limited wisdom. On the other hand win has some
really cool features I miss on OS/2. One is changing resolution without reboot.
Sorry off topic.
Anyway thanks for your thoughts. As always there were some interesting things for me to
learn. At first I think I've to become more familiar with the open watcom source file
layout and where to find what. In the meantime I found some useful information on the wiki
pages. Thanks to the people who did the work. And thanks to all people who still support
this amazing piece of code base.
Regards, Andi
##########################################################
config.sys comments regarding default system font settings
REM ! 20061207 Fontsize=large, Fontdpi=120, usually small and 96dpi or large and 120dpi
(Snap readme), small und 120 -> Schrift etwas größer
REM ! WinOS2 Schrift in der \os2\mdos\winos2\system.ini [GRADD]
REM ! SET SDDFONTDPI=120 120 Ptime geht sich nicht aus 100 auch nicht 90 auch nicht, nur
120 und 96 gehen unter OS/2
REM ! SET SDDFONTSIZE=large ging lange zeit gut jetzt test mit medium, LARGE von Eugene (PMD)
REM ! SET SDDFONTSIZE=large
REM ! SET SDDFONTDPI=120
REM ! Versuch mit small und 96dpi und Warpsans setdeffont --> sehr kleine Schriften am
Desktop und auch in Menüs und Mozilla, Texte gehen sich trotzdem nicht aus -->
REM ! Versuch mit large und 96dpi und Warpsans --> kleine Schrift kommt anscheinend von
setdeffont Warpsans, mit large wird vs linke spalte riesig, ptime schlecht, rsj und pmd
auch nicht gut ->
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Helv, large, 96dpi --> Controls passen jetzt, aber
Schrift noch immer klein -->
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Helv, large, 120dpi --> geht ganz gut, controls passen
fast (rsj, pmd) oder gut (ptime, lucide), clipview große Schrift -->
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 8. Helv, large, 120dpi --> passt nicht mehr so gut (rsj, pmd,
ptime), lucide geht gerade noch, clipview okay
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Helv, medium, 120dpi --> geht ganz gut, controls passen
fast (rsj, pmd) oder gut (ptime, lucide), clipview große Schrift -->
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Helv, small, 120dpi --> geht ganz gut, controls passen
fast (rsj, pmd) oder gut (ptime, lucide), clipview große Schrift -->
REM ! small, medium, large dürfte nichts bringen
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Syst Prop, SMALL, 120dpi --> alles gut nur clipview und
vs Schrift ziemlich groß
REM ! Versuch mit setdeffont 10. Syst Prop, large , 96dpi --> kleine Schrift auf WPS, aber
clipview und VS riesig
REM ! 20080808 versuch mit SMALL statt Medium (VAC4)
REM ! 20080813 damit sieht URE sch... aus -> wieder medium
SET SDDFONTSIZE=Medium
SET SDDFONTDPI=120