[wxPython-users] how to get the screen size for an application

[Tim Roberts]

On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 15:21:43 -0500, Paul Koning <pkoning at equallogic.com>
wrote:
>
> Lots of existing code, including code from OS vendors, does absolute
> positioning.  And I agree with Chris that this is always wrong.  The
> fact that it's a popular bug doesn't make it any less a bug.
>
> One way to see how wrong this is: increase the UI font size (using
> TinkerTool on Mac OS, for example).  Observe how the UI becomes a
> total mess, with UI text labels truncated all over the place and
> things mispositioned.
>
> If Apple had done the job correctly, this would not have been a
> problem.
>   

The ultimate irony of that last sentence is that Apple was really the
first company to do this right.  I was working for a mixed Mac/Windows
company in the early 1990s.  The Mac detected the physical monitor size
(using special cable pins), and automatically reconfigured itself so
that a logical inch on the screen actually mapped to a physical inch. 
It resized the fonts and windows to match the new resolution.  This made
it ideal for desktop publishing, a market where the Mac flourished.

Windows' handling of the same task was a joke.  Each display driver
hardcoded a screen size (usually based on a 15" monitor), regardless of
what monitor was physically attached.  You could choose large fonts (120
dpi) or small fonts (96 dpi), but invariably an application built for
one screwed up hopelessly on a system configured for the other, and
there was absolutely no way to get anything like a real inch on the screen.

By now, Windows handles this kind of thing quite smoothly.  I can change
my system's font theme on a continuous basis, and Windows happily
reconfigures itself accordingly.  Most application are theme- and
font-size aware.  Now you're telling me that OS X gets it wrong?  Next
you'll tell me there isn't really a Santa Clause.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.