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Smooth Scrolling Targeted For X.Org Server 1.12

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  • Smooth Scrolling Targeted For X.Org Server 1.12

    Phoronix: Smooth Scrolling Targeted For X.Org Server 1.12

    In early 2012 we can expect to see the release of X.Org Server 1.12 with various touch improvements and other input related work. Also being queued up for the 1.12 release is support for smooth scrolling...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I personally think that is very LATE to add smooth scrolling...

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    • #3
      Smooth scrolling is implemented by Gtk and Qt. I thought that this is the right place to implement this feature, given that X11 lacks GUI controls.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by RealNC View Post
        Smooth scrolling is implemented by Gtk and Qt. I thought that this is the right place to implement this feature, given that X11 lacks GUI controls.
        Assuming the patches are related to this year old thread " http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg06390.htm" it has more to do with input event resolution than GUI controls.

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        • #5
          Awesome, and about time indeed. Lack of it is basically the thing that I dislike the most on my Linux installation so far (followed by very slow Flash performance), so fixing it will go a long way indeed.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by TheCycoONE View Post
            Assuming the patches are related to this year old thread " http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg06390.htm" it has more to do with input event resolution than GUI controls.
            Opps, cut off the url and didn't catch it in the edit timeout:
            http://www.mail-archive.com/xorg-dev.../msg06390.html

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            • #7
              It's always great to have new features, but I thought that everybody and their grandma immediately disabled this useless and annoying "feature" within 15 seconds of starting to use a new computer.

              I refused to use IE long before the browser wars got started precisely for enforcing this dumbass behaviour.

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              • #8
                Oh wow, I can disable that for the time being. Awesome! Thanks for the tip!

                For those who would like to know how: Go to about:config, search for general.smoothScroll and doubleclick it.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by pingufunkybeat View Post
                  It's always great to have new features, but I thought that everybody and their grandma immediately disabled this useless and annoying "feature" within 15 seconds of starting to use a new computer.
                  In my experience, the lack of this feature is one of the things people use to make fun of just how bad the Linux desktop experience is.

                  It can be annoying when implemented poorly, but when implemented properly it is a huge usability boost. Animations that illustrate where something that moved has actually gone makes a huge difference in your ability to efficiently use any UI.

                  (On an off-topic note, this is one of my biggest gripes with the Roku UI. You click a button, there's some lag, a sound, and then your screen is laid out differently. If someone else is using the remote, for instance, it's very disorienting and at times difficult to tell if they're moving left or right through the queue, leading some confusion like "go back to the left... i mean forward to the right... i mean, back to wherever you were, you passed it.")

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by elanthis View Post
                    In my experience, the lack of this feature is one of the things people use to make fun of just how bad the Linux desktop experience is.
                    I wouldn't take such people seriously. My gripe with the scrolling is that it makes you slower and you don't have immediate visual feedback of just where you end up once you use the scroll wheel. It was cool back in the 90s, when it was a "wow" factor, but for me, it is annoying. If I scroll a page, I want it to stop scrolling the very microsecond I stop scrolling, and I want to know (by feeling) exactly where I've scrolled to.

                    This is my gripe with many modern GUIs. You spend lots of time watching animated things and catching them around the screen, when you know exactly where you want them. You spend lots of time reading menus and dialogs and looking for the right thing to click, when you know exactly what the option/file you're looking for is called.

                    At the same time, you are right that smooth animations in general, when implemented well, can improve usability. So this patch will probably enable some other, better, effects which improve usability. And that's a good thing.

                    It's just that the "browser scrolling smoothly when you press page down" gimmick stopped being cool about 15 seconds after it was introduced. It slows you down, as it's nauseating to read scrolling text on a monitor.

                    IMHO, of course.

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