Scroll size, take II

Subject: Scroll size, take II
From: Geoff Hart <Geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 14:22:03 -0400

Kathy Ellis continued the discussion: <<The algorithm is
exactly what I'm looking for!!! Does anyone know what it
is?>>

This suggested a call to my local programmer guru (thanks,
Jan!), who proposed the thought that the scroll bar moves the
image one screen at a time, but leaves a bit of the image from
the previous screen for overlap: that is, if your screen holds
10 lines of text, it moves you down to show the last of the 10
lines at the top of the screen, plus another 9 lines (for a total
of 10). Graphics apps would behave similarly. Since I'm a
recovering scientist ("...but I'm feeling much better now."), I
tested this, and it's true for the three applications currently
open on my Windows system.

So there you have your answer: the scroll bar moves you one
_screen_ at a time, and the arrow key moves you a distance
that depends on the nature of the application. (In fact, it's
programmable. You can see that the amount differs by
selecting a line of 12-point text in Word and changing the
point size to 72 points; hitting the down arrow key or clicking
the down arrow on the elevator bar moves the cursor to the
bottom of the line of 72-point text, not midway through it.

<<The programmer didn't know and just passed it off as
Microsoft's invention, but that doesn't help me at all.>>

The programmer was being lazy, since this information
should be clearly presented in the programmer's API guide,
the functional specs doc, or both.


--Geoff Hart @8^{)} Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?"--Anon.


From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=



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