[Touch CDMA Android Development] tatnai:
Resolution solutions

Ok, I spent an hour messing with resolution, and I've come to the conclusion that even after donut is available and we are able to use resolution density, we will actually NOT have a perfect resolution for our Vogues. Here's why:

Problem: Resolutions with a screen height of less than 480 will fail to show the entire screen for some software applications. The more I use the vogue, the more examples I find. "Weather.com": the first time loading screen action buttons are off the bottom screen, as are weather alerts (they rarely come by, but when they do, you're happy you saw them). "Robo Defense" (awesome, addictive game; wasting my life on this), you'll note the right side of the screen (landscape) is chopped of. "Where", the bottom of the screen is missing. CadreBible, on the boot screen the bottom is missing. The more programs we try, the handful of programs that requires a screen height of 480 will grow. Probably easily fixed by programming in such a way to avoid this, but I'm not making the programs . . . Unfortunately, using an LCD density of 120 or 128 DOES NOT FIX THIS (try it with resolution 320x428; try 240x320 if you want, it'll be even worse). While the home screen and all icons look nice and small, the programs give the same result. I do not think this will change with implementation of donut - sure, we'll be able to use Google Maps properly and see all the text in GMail along with beautiful looking home screens, but this other issue is not one of compatibility, it is a question of whether the program was programmed needing a particular resolution to see everything the programmer wanted you to see.

Partial solution: The aforementioned use of higher resolutions in default.txt to see the bottom of the screen is imperfect at best. Sure it works, I use 362 x 480 and the new camera fixes work great, I see all of the screen on all programs, Google Maps works perfectly and I see everything in GMail, and I get a small icon view of the home screen, but I am plagued but the infamous "slight blurriness" of the screen. Every time I switch back to 320x428, I am amazed at how sharp it is, but hate knowing I am missing parts of my screen on some programs, and it drives me nuts until I make the move back to a higher resolution and more blurriness.

Real solutions:

Well, there are a couple of roads we can take. LCD density looks great, but as above, probably won't fix the problem even when donut allows google (and other non-compatible) programs to handle it.

1. Figure out how to get Android to handle 362x480 without the blurriness: I don't think this would be easy, as I'm guessing 320x428 works great because the OS is built to handle 320x480 and we're just chopping off the bottom, versus any resolutions outside 320x480 (355x 356x 357x 358x 359x 360x and 362x480 - I tried them all, don't even bother with the odd numbers; for some reason 360x480 does not support the new camera fixes) the OS is expanding the number of pixels which is a problem and = blurriness. Well, the HTC dream is 320x480, I don't know if this will change soon, we can pray or better yet dream that donut will allow higher resolutions without blurriness, if it doesn't we're stuck. I suspect it would be a horrendous job to try and get ion to support this resolution without blurriness, don't even know where to start, and probably not worth it.

2. Petition people to stop writing their programs for a screen height of 480 pixels; uh, need I say more?

3. Just put up with it, you whiner. Who needs to see the entire screen anyways, you OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder, btw) freak? Maybe works for you, but I'm obviously on the freak side . . .

4. This is where you come in . . .

Maybe I'm analyzing this wrong. Maybe donut WILL change how the lcd density works and miraculously fix this, or support screen width above 320 in preparation for other phones, and hopefully we won't have a problem. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that come donut, we'll have the exact same problem with finding a perfect resolution on our vogue.

My questions to devs and users:

1. does anyone care? if no one does, I just wasted everyones' time (including my own) by posting this . . . move along, nothing to see here.

2. devs, do you think this will somehow not be a problem when donut is ported, and things will "just work better"

3. does anyone have any better solutions, short term or long term?