Re: [Usability] Scrolling virtually infinite windows

[Lars Weber <lars digiterror net>]

Late reply...

Am Dienstag, den 22.03.2005, 00:24 +0100 schrieb Magnus Bergman:
> In many applications the size of the data, and therefore also the
> window, has no particular maximum size. This include vector based
> drawing applications, mathematical graph or fractal viewers and midi
> sequencers. Since it makes sense to scroll as much as you like in at
> least one direction, the common scrollbar is not suitable, I believe. I
> think a new widget is needed. What do other people think?

Since both very large and automatically resizing panes (or whatever the
correct term is) are confusing in my view, I wonder whether always
making such areas have a fixed initial size and allowing for easy
*manual* resizing would be the best solution.  A vector drawing
application thus would have something like drag-handles at every edge of
the drawing area.  A spreadsheet might have properly located buttons to
manually add or remove rows ... or alternatively it might have the same
drag-handle as the vector drawing application to make the behaviour more
consistent. 

Regards,
Lars