[virt-tools-list] [PATCH virt-viewer 1/3] display: repurpose zoom property, rename it scale

[Jonathon Jongsma]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marc-André Lureau" <mlureau at redhat.com>
> To: "Jonathon Jongsma" <jjongsma at redhat.com>
> Cc: "Marc-André Lureau" <marcandre.lureau at gmail.com>, virt-tools-list at redhat.com
> Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:24:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [virt-tools-list] [PATCH virt-viewer 1/3] display: repurpose zoom property, rename it scale
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> > I'm not convinced that this 'scaling' option is really a useful feature.
> > I find it a bit confusing to have these two checkboxes with very similar
> > names right next to eachother in the menu ("scale display" / "resize
> > display").  It's not intuitive what the effect of each option would be.
> > It also seems like very few people would ever want to disable automatic
> > scaling...
> 
> In some cases, the guest can't be resized, and scaling can introduce
> undesired bluriness and artifacts. The bug that triggered this:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1054757
> 
> > 
> > On top of the above issues, the support for this feature is incomplete
> > because of several issues.  Reference this screenshot:
> > 
> >   http://jjongsma.fedorapeople.org/vv-no-scaling.png
> > 
> > As you can see, if you resize the window smaller than the guest display
> > size, it becomes unusable because:
> > A) there are no scrollbars to access the parts of the display outside of
> > the window
> 
> Right, I didn't think enough about that. Perhaps it could embed the display
> in GtkScrolledWindow.
> 
> > B) instead of displaying as much of the unscaled display as possible, it
> > maintains the aspect ratio of the guest display, which makes no sense in
> > this case.
> 
> that sounds also like a bug that could be easily fixable
> 

Right, I wasn't trying to say that these are insurmountable issues.  But even with these issues resolved, the bigger issue still remains. I think the uncertainty and confusion added by having these two very similar-sounding options in the menu outweighs the very limited benefit we get from adding this feature that very few people will use. As a matter of fact, I went back and looked at the app again and I had to think for about 10 seconds before I remembered which option was supposed to do what.  Perhaps there's a way to present this feature in a way that is more intuitive, but I don't support adding it in its current form.

Jonathon