[Tfug] Swapping out a notebook's LCD?

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Claude,

--- On Wed, 10/15/08, Claude Rubinson <rubinson at u.arizona.edu> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 10:59:52AM -0700, Bexley Hall wrote:
> > --- On Mon, 10/13/08, Malcolm Schmerl <mjs355 at comcast.net> wrote:

Hmmm... any relation to "Sarah"?

> > > > On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 09:25:24AM -0700, Claude Rubinson wrote:
> > > >   
> > > > Quick update: None of the refurbished IBM laptops in my price
> > > > range are 1400x1050.  So I'll either be swapping or learning
> > > > to live with it.
> > >   
> > > Just curious, why do you need such a high resolution, anyway?
> > 
> > He enjoys squinting?  :-/  (I hesitate running 1600x1280 on 21"
> > monitors!  But, then again, I deal with a lot of *text*...)
> 
> Higher resolution means (a) more real estate and (b) clearer
> rendering, which means that you can more easily see smaller
> fonts, widgets, etc.  And you can always increase font sizes (and
> widgets, etc) to something more comfortable.

My point is, *I* can't see "smaller fonts".  :>  With the screen
2-3 feet from my face, resolving small letters is just not possible
at *any* resolution (i.e., hold the overal physical size of the
character constant and increase the resolution to your heart's
content!).  So, increasing resolution just means I end up
having to reconfigure the applicationsw to use "larger" fonts
to keep the *displayed* size of the characters large enough
to resolve.  As a result, all that extra real estate gets used
up with bigger (text) windows.  :<  

The only solution I have found is to use multiple monitors (this is
probably not practical with a laptop, of course).  My Solaris machine
is a constant reminder of how quickly real estate disappears
when you start enlarging things to make them visible/usable
(it runs 2x1600x1200).

I typically have one monitor set up to display three text windows
at 80x25, 80x25 and 80x66.  A second monitor will have a debugger
session running at virtually "full screen".  If I am working on
debugging a device driver or some other part of the hardware, then
a third monitor will have a schematic and/or PCB layout displayed.
Even then, if I need to consult a datasheet (PDF) for some components
in the design, I have to start layering windows (i.e., overlay the
debugger session so I can consult the schematic/layout while reading
the datasheet) -- since datasheets are notoriously cluttered and
poor resolution.  :<

And, my *target* (hardware) will have one or more monitors letting
me see what is happening in the "system under test".

There just is no real alternative to "lots of display *area*"
(not just lots of display *pixels*).  <frown>  At least for
those of us with "old eyes"  :-/

--don