Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

Justin King — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:35:21 GMT

Isn't the new SSMS in 2011 written using WPF the same as VS2010 to allow for better resolution independance and more advanced UI?

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:51:25 GMT

I raised this Connect item a few years ago when I tried out large fonts on a laptop at 800x600. The item is marked as fixed, though clearly it is not.

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=297955

The big problem is when there are OK/Cancel buttons off the screen to the right that you can't see. These dialogs are not resizable and not really movable because you can't drag the title bar off the top of the screen. And most don't have keyboard shortcuts for OK/Cancel that you could remember. So you have to use tab and cross your fingers in order to engage the desired action.

The easy answer is to increase the screen size (you are right that 4:3 laptops are going away, but so are laptops that don't support much higher resolution than 1366x768). But I agree that a lower resolution is more optimal for folks who have trouble reading smaller fonts.

What I think it comes down to is having a more broad testing matrix, but without incurring huge QA overruns. Make the *developers* do this QA as a part of the development process, by using the worst case scenario / lowest common denominator configuration. If the engine team writes their stuff on case-sensitive collations, we won't have bugs in system procedures that only turn up on those collations. And if the SSMS team designs their UI dialogs on 640x480, they might get annoyed, but we won't see any dialogs where we can't find the OK button.

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

Greg Low — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:48:27 GMT

Hi Aaron,

I recall that they had a default for minimum window size but my recollection was also that the default was 4:3 ratio based. I think they need to have a 16:9 ratio based minimum now and they should test for usability on 1366x768.

Regards,

Greg

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:51:29 GMT

Justin, a lot of the dialogs use the same old code, even if they're launched from within the newer Visual Studio shell (check out the Tools|Options screens or the Agent job property dialogs, for example ... they haven't changed a bit). This "one-size-fits-the-developer's-resolution-so-ship-it" mentality is also true for a lot of extraneous moving parts that have nothing to do with SSMS... Setup, Upgrade Advisor, Best Practices Analyzer, Profiler, etc. etc...

I should do another round of testing with Denali in 800x600 or 640x480 and see how much of the product actually becomes unusable. I don't think there will be much at all that has been gained by using the new shell, at least in terms of accessibility for lower monitors. For bigger monitors and multiple monitors, I agree with you completely.

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 03:57:27 GMT

Greg, IMHO all they have to do is test for minimal height. They are never going to go over on the width, regardless of aspect ratio.

There are other issues too, such as how dialogs are laid out - again it proves that they do not test on 1024x768 or 1366x768, never mind with higher DPI font settings. I'd be surprised if they do any testing on laptops at all, to be honest. Check out this one from the CU patch program (still this way in 2008 R2):

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=402978

http://www.aaronbertrand.com/voodoo/patch_ss1.png

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

Andy — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 06:58:53 GMT

I've been using VMs a lot recently for testing and have not been maximising the screen hence loosing space at top and bottom. There's a few apps out there that don't work on short screens

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

Adam Machanic — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:45:19 GMT

My notebook is 1600x900 and I have no problem with the tools. My last notebook, at 1280x800 was also fine from my point of view. So I'm not sure what the issue is -- does something change at other resolutions?

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:03:37 GMT

Yes, if you go below 800 then a lot of the dialogs will be clipped at the bottom (e.g. buttons barely visible at 768, and not visible at all at lower heights). Check out the screen shot of the Create New Policy dialog at 800x600, large fonts:

http://sqlblog.com/files/folders/20870/download.aspx

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

Greg Low — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:05:33 GMT

Hi Adam,

Yes, as Aaron said, the biggest problem is the 768 height. The OK and Cancel buttons on many dialogs can't be reached except by guesswork. And this height for notebook resolution is becoming really common.

Regards,

Greg

re: Should SQL Server tools target wide screen formats instead of portrait formats?

David Walker — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:51:19 GMT

I opened a Connect item to report that I get screen artifacts and tearing in SSMS for SQL 2008, when the SSMS window is nearly the width of my screen.

My screen resolution is 1920x1200. MS closed the issue as basically "We don't care". I see repeated scroll bars and the screen can become unusable. I included screenshots with my Connect issue -- the problems do get captured in a screenshot.

I even tried changing video adapters to use one with a completely different video chipset. (AMD to NVidia or vice versa.) I hope this gets fixed eventually.