Comments on: Japanese Computers – Still Living It 8-bit

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:17:01 +0000

@Jostein: While I am a Mac user, I’d be happy for anyone to bring proper resolution-independence to the desktop. If anything, I’m disappointed that it’s still not available in OS X despite being rumored for so long.

By: Jostein Kjønigsen

Jostein Kjønigsen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:59:53 +0000

@Aaron. I see you mentioning how Mac OSX solves this problem without the usual smug remarks, so not going to shit on that directly. Good for Mac users, as I agree DPI independence in the UI is an important thing.

That said (and that particularly goes to the blog author): Microsoft released WPF a long ago, and WPF is all vector, not pixel based. I’m not going to say the API is flawless (it isn’t), a gift from the Gods (it isn’t) and can’t be abused by developers hellbent on making their solution inflexible (it can), but it also goes a long way of solving this particular problem and it is supported all the way back to Windows XP SP2.

For developers on the Win32 platform I see little to no reason for not using it, especially now with the tool-support shaping up, and in that remark especially the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 release. Why Microsoft didn’t add a fully featured XAML/WPF editor into Visual Studio 2008 is still something I can’t comprehend.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:57:24 +0000

heh, 鬱 is a personal favorite of mine since it is the most complex kanji my dictionary lookup tool that I’m working on can handle at the moment (and the most complex kanji I’ve come across in my studies/reading).

At any rate, Windows 7 does in fact still have cruddy fonts while OS X 10.6 looks kinda decent:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4135/screenshot20091104at124.png

Reviewers with the new higher-density Android do say the higher dot pitch does make a big difference compared to 160DPI.

One issue with higher-density displays is defect rate. I don’t have any inside information, but it must be harder to create flawless high-density displays of any great size, so it’s not just a matter of economies of scale.

By: Gatunka

Gatunka — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:44:29 +0000

You're right. I'm not sure how I made this mistake, since I originally picked the first five out of The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary to make sure that they were 常用漢字. I've certainly seen the complex form 甕 used in novels before, though, so it does have some relevance. Anyway, thanks for your comment and for reading!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:23:25 +0000

Great post! Are you sure 甕 is learned in high school though? It’s not 常用漢字, but does have a 常用 equivalent: 瓶.

Mac OS X has had resolution-independence on its radar for several releases now. Since they control the whole widget, I’d look to Apple to deliver a high-resolution solution before Microsoft. Their market share isn’t huge, but even in Japan it may be enough to push other manufacturers (as they did in making USB ubiquitous and getting touch controls on phones).