TamsPalm reader joecoder recently left the following comment (thank you very much for it):
Okay suppose it’s really 400px and not an error, aren’t webOS apps developed using HTML, CSS and Javascript? With some careful (thoughtful?) CSS and Javascript, you can pretty much scale webOS mobile apps to fit any screen resolution.
In fact, webOS should handle resolution scaling pretty easily, just like any browser would. Right?
…
Even though his point is valid at first glance, I have to apologize…it just doesn’t work that way in practice, especially when games are involved. The two images below show exactly the same web site shown on two monitors (scaled down to the same pixel width):
on MSI Wind U100 – 1024×600
on HD display – 1900×1200
OK. I have to admit that the differences between Pre and Eos are not as significant as the ones seen above…but the core problem remains. HTML scaling is difficult to achieve at best – it may work somewhat well with static content, but gets incredibly difficult the moment we look at dynamic content or different aspect ratios.
Limiting yourself to one screen resolution (like Apple does) makes life significantly easier for developers IMHO – anyone of you feel different?
Related posts:
Content, RSS
Twitter
Actually, scaling can sometimes be done quite easily. As a general rule, scale the page retaining its proportions, using the width as a guide. Expanding your page width to match the target should result in a relatively good scale. It, of course, depends on how the page is written but it is often possible. Big thing is to not scale based on the height, since scrolling up and down is fairly trivial — scaling left and right is just plain annoying.
Of course, I don’t know anything about how WebOS will affect such matters directly
Hi,
scrolling may be not annoying when it comes to web sites…but imagine having to scroll all the time to see all the functions of an app!
Furthermore, games live off pixel-perfect alignments…so
All the best
Tam Hanna
I don’t think that you understand how scaling in HTML and CSS works.
The site you are referencing appears to use fixed width for the main content. They do not really gain much by allowing the widths of the page to change.
If you use dynamic widths, then things are easier to handle (with regards to changing dimensions), and will scale nicely. Though, things tend to be a little more complex.
I’m web designer and that example is wrong because you took a page design that the designer decided that he didn’t want the page to scale more then that max width.
Web was design to be scalable, its the designers that decide if they want it or not. Mostly don’t because of big screens resolutions. Years before the average screen resolution was 800×600.
Hi Folks,
nice to see you all talking back!
I have two things to say:
Web was design to be scalable, its the designers that decide if they want it or not. Mostly don’t because of big screens resolutions. Years before the average screen resolution was 800×600.
Web pages (textual static content) is no eeker. Scaling dynamic content (think apps) is where I see the problem.
If you use dynamic widths, then things are easier to handle (with regards to changing dimensions), and will scale nicely. Though, things tend to be a little more complex
This complexity is what I hoped Palm would avoid…
All the best
Tam Hanna
The complexity is in CSS and the box-model.
What problem do you see in scaling dynamic content? I see no problem.
Hi,
do you think that pixel-based sprites can be interpolated well by uneven factors?
All the best
Tam Hanna
P.S. Scaling by 2x is no issue. But try 1.5…