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WizOSX · Mar 13, 2005, 10:11 AM

It seems to be almost random. You can do the same operation just a few minutes apart and click on the green zoom button and get very different results the next time. I was wondering if anyone who knows a bit about Unix/terminal/OSX could shed any light on where and how the window size determined and then stored. There is no doubt it is influenced more by the previous software used, less by the previous time you used the window--one thing I find most annoying.

TETENAL · Mar 13, 2005, 10:33 AM

OS X doesn't remember windows sizes, and OS X doesn't determine window sizes. Applications do. They store window sizes in their preferences file if they want to. How they do it is up to them (though Cocoa has a default mechanism for that). This has nothing to do with Unix and/or Terminal.

The green button toggles between the "optimal" window size and the user window size.

WizOSX · Mar 13, 2005, 10:55 AM

Originally posted by TETENAL
OS X doesn't remember windows sizes, and OS X doesn't determine window sizes. Applications do. They store window sizes in their preferences file if they want to. How they do it is up to them (though Cocoa has a default mechanism for that).

OK--so I do the following. Open MS Word in a blank document. Click the green zoom button a couple of times to see Word's two window size settings. Leave the document on screen. Run another program, quit it. Come back to Word. Now the green zoom button toggles between totally different sizes. So somehow the finder must be holding some window size info separate from what the application chooses. Yes or no??

chabig · Mar 13, 2005, 11:03 AM

I tried what you did with Word, and get the same window sizes every time.

Chris

Big Mac · Mar 13, 2005, 11:04 AM

That's strange but not incomprehensible - maybe Word just plain sucks.

TETENAL · Mar 13, 2005, 12:02 PM

Originally posted by WizOSX:
So somehow the finder must be holding some window size info separate from what the application chooses. Yes or no??

The Finder has absolutely nothing to do with on how Word picks window sizes. If that doesn't answer you question, please rephrase it so that I can understand it.

WizOSX · Mar 13, 2005, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by TETENAL
The Finder has absolutely nothing to do with on how Word picks window sizes. If that doesn't answer you question, please rephrase it so that I can understand it.

I guess what I am seeing is the following: If you change resolution (or have software, like games, that do) info is sent to the running software and the software changes its window sizes--even if that software doesn't have windows in the foreground. For example, run Safari, check window size toggle. Then go into system preferences and change screen resolution from your current to a much lower one (e.g. 640x480). Then change it back to your original. Then go back to Safari and it will now size windows differently when you click the zoom button. Although this isn't life or death, it is sometimes a nuisance.

TETENAL · Mar 14, 2005, 08:53 AM

Yes, when you switch resolutions applications are notified of that. They have to be, so that they can resize windows and move them on screen. You wouldn't want to have a window dangling inaccessible in an offscreen area.

Games have a way to switch to fullscreen and change resolutions without other applications moving windows around. Some games don't do it that way. Send feedback to the developer game developer if you have such a game.