Ubuntu
pcb package

pcb window doesn't fit in 1024x768

Bug #111405 reported by Cheuksan Edward Wang on 2007-05-01

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	pcb (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Wishlist	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: pcb

The initial window for pcb doesn't fit in a 1024x768 screen. Since most people are using this resolution, this is a serious usability issue. I can't even see the title bar to change the size of the window. If I get the title bar, the maximization button cannot shrink the window to fit on my screen.

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Cheuksan Edward Wang (wang02139) wrote on 2007-05-01:

This is a screenshot of the initial window on a 1024x768 screen. You can't see the title bar or the bottom half of the window. Edit (82.6 KiB, image/png)

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Cheuksan Edward Wang (wang02139) wrote on 2007-05-01:

I'm running pcb 20050609, the default version in the repository, on ubuntu 6.06 .

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Peter Clifton (pcjc2) wrote on 2008-02-12:

There are some options which can help with this:

File -> Preferences:

General:

(TICK) Alternate window layout to allow smaller horizontal size.
(TICK) Put layout name on the window title bar

In addition, there is a patch whcih can shuffle things a little to get down to 800x600. Its not upstream, and I've not tested it (I was sent it by another PCB user). Let me know if you want a copy to try out.

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Cheuksan Edward Wang (wang02139) wrote on 2008-02-22:

I see. Can you make

(TICK) Alternate window layout to allow smaller horizontal size.
(TICK) Alternate window layout to allow smaller vertical size.

default to on?

First impression are often the most important to users. If the window doesn't fit on the screen, most new users will give up on the software.

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Peter Clifton (pcjc2) wrote on 2008-02-23:

I agree that the defaults may not be very good, but the alternative layouts also move the tools which other PCB users will have grown accoustomed to having in a particular position.

I've posted a message on the geda-user mailing list linking to this bug, to see what the PCB developers and other users think should be done. Hopefully there is something which can help solve the issue.

When confronted with this myself (deploying a Live-CD for students), I started working on a GTK widget for packing the toolbar and status items in a way which would cause them to wrap as the window was shrunk. Unfortunately, GTK doesn't have very good (any?) mechanisms for doing "height for width" or "width for height" negotiations, so it required a bit of a kludge to make it work.

When I discovered the above options, I just flipped the default to a compact horizontal layout, placed the layout name in the title-bar (rather than have it occupying horizontal space in main window area), and found that served our needs OK.

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Cheuksan Edward Wang (wang02139) wrote on 2008-02-23:

Most people on the geda-user mailing list seem to agree that the default screen should fit on 1024x768.

After installing the software, experience users can easily find the options to change the layout to what they like, but new users will have no idea that these options exist.

Daniel T Chen (crimsun) on 2008-10-08

Changed in pcb:
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist
status:	New → Confirmed

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أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy) wrote on 2009-11-15:

Is this bug still present in latest Debian release 20091103-1 ?

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أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy) wrote on 2010-11-29:

I just tested in Maverick as follows:
1) Logged in with a guest session (just to ensure that I am not using any previous user settings)
2) Set the monitor resolution to 1024x768 from System->Preferences->Monitors
3) Then I started pcb, and I don't have the reported issue. So I think that is indeed fixed already.