Re: Forms 4 MAC scaling problems

Julianne Weekers : #54404 : Prentice Centre (ccjuli_at_uqvax.cc.uq.oz.au) wrote:

> We are developing an application in Oracle Forms 4.0 that will use Macintosh
> Centris, and Macintosh LC II machines as clients.
 

> We have run into a scaling problem, whereby 18cm frames designed in the Forms
> 4.0 designer on the Centris, appear as 21cm frames on the LC II. (Something to
> do with pixels per inch being different, we think)
> The window of display is truncated to the size of the screen, leaving the now
> oversized canvas, with undisplayed areas. The window cannot be resized to the
> full view area.
 

> Does anyone know of a way to force correct scaling?

Ooh, fun..you've run across one of the wonderful "features" of Forms 4.0.

One of the things you want to be sure to do when trying to make portable Forms 4.0 screens is to keep the Coordinate System (in the module prefs) at either character, or inches/centimeters. If you use Pixel or Point, portability of screens is terrible, even on the same box at different resolutions.

I personally try to use character whenever possible due to the fact that Oracle must have only tested their portability using a character based coordinate system. Even inches/centimeters becomes very touchy on some systems. If you do use inches/centimeters, make sure to use the Align and Same Size commands from the Arrange menu. Items that look the same size will not always show up as the same size on other platforms.

I can understand some of the issues Oracle has to deal with since they are one of the few with a graphical development product that spans many platforms, but it just seems they did not hire anyone with true experience on each of the platforms to take care of all the little quirks. (Personally, I'm guessing they took all the left over Forms 3.0 developers and gave them a week-long seminar in how to write a GUI interface.... ;)

• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sean_Stasica_at_stortek.com
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -