Re: Scrollbar thumbs

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

"grischka" <grishka@gmx.de> writes:

> Seen that nowadays the gui-dyslexics

Could you look up complex words in the dictionary before you use them?
It might help to make your postings less inflammatory.

> tend to become a more rare species

dyslexia is not coupled to species.

> and the generation simply tends to loose the ability to understand

While you have the dictionary at hand, look up "loose".

> that a non-linear, moreover non-contiguous

And "contiguous".

> and even non-complementary

And "complementary".

> geometrical relation between scrollbar and scrollable content can be
> anything else than an accumulation of design flaws.

The "design flaw" is that Emacs has a variable line height.  An editor
is primarily supposed to deal with lines of text, not with continuous
graphical panes.  And previous to Emacs 21, Emacs only dealt with lines
of text of constant height.  Previous to Emacs 19, the lines
corresponded 1:1 to the screen lines.

None of those bear any relation to the fact that an editor can show
areas that are not part of the content (most trivially for an empty
file), and that should reflect on the scrollbar appearance.  A web
browser will just remove the scrollbar altogether.  But that is just
feasible for static content, and when the changing of the layout when a
scrollbar is added and removed is not disconcerting.

Also, defining some model of correctness and then adhering to it needs
to take interactive responsiveness into consideration.  The typical web
document does not contain millions of lines, but Emacs must be able to
deal with navigating and changing stuff in documents of that size.

Anyway: if you want to achieve something, chances are that choosing a
manner of correspondence that sports a less condescending appearance
might be beneficial.  Chances are that people working decades in a
particular area of expertise have all that time just been missing the
advice of a complete newcomer.

And if you are convinced of the opposite, common sense should tell you
that such a severe case should need rather more than less diplomacy to
deal with.

-- 
David Kastrup