New Wayland Protocol Proposed For Fractional Scaling

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New Wayland Protocol Proposed For Fractional Scaling

A new Wayland protocol has been proposed for dealing with fractional scaling of surfaces that paired with wp_viewport can be used for achieving fractional scaling...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wayland-Fractional-Scaling-v1

[BratishkaErik]

Magic?

[tildearrow]

Hmmm.... a new protocol for fractional scaling.

How come they didn't think of this years ago?

[sinepgib]

Hmmm.... a new protocol for fractional scaling.

How come they didn't think of this years ago?

Most likely because:
1. It's, to some degree, committee driven, which means slower cycles until everyone is happy with the specs;
2. Priorities are set by backers, and by far the first users were manufacturers for strictly single screen devices (infotainment, some fringe mobile devices);
3. Probably lots of the devs used the same resolution for all their screens, so there wasn't even prioritization for personal needs.

But yeah, pretty important feature where they lagged behind X.org. Nice to see it's finally coming together.

[user1]

At this rate I won't be surprised if in 10 years Wayland will still have some papercuts.

[tildearrow]

At this rate I won't be surprised if in 10 years Wayland will still have some papercuts.

That's because (sadly) desktop isn't their priority...
They prioritized embedded first :<

[arzeth]

Finally. Even ancient IE7 had it. Imagine if iOS had no fractional scaling: that would mean every year there would be 20% more icons (4 icons → 5 icons in a row) on the home screen of iPhones with screens of the same physical size. In ideal world, the same (i.e. physical size of elements) must also be by default for, e.g., 24" 1920x1080 and 24" 2560x1440, unless a user doesn't care about their eyes, and wants to become blind fast. It is strange that fractional scaling isn't the very first priority for those outreach programs, it's like they don't care about people with eye disorders/diseases or bad sight.

[sinepgib]

Finally. Even ancient IE7 had it. Imagine if iOS had no fractional scaling: that would mean every year there would be 20% more icons (4 icons → 5 icons in a row) on the home screen of iPhones with screens of the same physical size. In ideal world, the same (i.e. physical size of elements) must also be by default for, e.g., 24" 1920x1080 and 24" 2560x1440, unless a user doesn't care about their eyes, and wants to become blind fast. It is strange that fractional scaling isn't the very first priority for those outreach programs, it's like they don't care about people with eye disorders/diseases or bad sight.

Note that, while certainly not ideal, those eye disorders are covered by integral scaling AFAICT. If all you need is bigger icons/text, it should suffice. Fractional scaling is much more about having consistent sizes in multimonitor settings than it is about accessibility.

[bple2137]

Don't get your expectations too high just yet. The issue is discussed for quite a long time now and it may take even more until everyone is happy with the protocol... Introduction of the protocol would be just a beginning as Wayland compositors and clients (or toolkits) will have to be updated to make use of it. I'd give it 2 more years at least.

What's also interesting, there really is a push towards solving the biggest shortcomings regarding scaling under Wayland, like this one: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/...e_requests/861 - should allow using full resolution for fullscreen X11 apps under Wayland

[skeevy420]

* Clicks Link
* CTRL+F
* GTK2
-- Phrase not found

Well, crap

I'm still hoping this'll lead to Steam not looking like...well, crap