F19 Installer a little better, but...

Sat Jun 15 04:22:18 UTC 2013

On 2013-06-14 12:53 (GMT-0700) Adam Williamson composed:

> On Fri, 2013-06-14 at 15:40 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

>> Hardware, switching between a 15" 1024x768 LCD and a 19.8" visible CRT trying
>> to discover a way to make everything legible. At the time I was trying to get
>> a 1600x1200 screenshot of Anaconda from the installed F19 system, lack of
>> configured installation sources prevented it. So, as a substitute I created

>> http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/Fedora/anaconda19tc3-08softselect-1200-120.png

>> which is an excellent contextual showing of actual text sizes encountered on
>> the CRT with either resolution='1600x1200' on cmdline, or no gfx config
>> params specified on cmdline. NAICT, the smaller text being used is 9px, or
>> roughly 25% of comfortable to read if black on white rather than gray on
>> gray. On the CRT, besides being tiny, its all _very_ muddy looking compared
>> to looking at the same image on a 20" 1600x1200 LCD.

> Once I zoom in on your screenshot, it does actually look roughly like
> the installer looks in my VMs. I don't have any trouble reading that
> text at all. Among the many other complaints other people have raised
> about the installer, I don't recall one other person complaining about
> text being too small.

Do you think people in the business of developing software or otherwise using 
a PC for most of any given work day are people whose vision is below average? 
I don't. I think quite the opposite, that those with poorer than average 
vision gravitate away from using a PC screen any more than they must, that 
many won't do it at all, and that few such people pursue occupations that 
require doing more than a little that requires using a PC. Net result is most 
in the puter business, including FOSS software testers, have both better than 
average vision, and more importantly, little or no understanding of or 
appreciation for the difficulties encountered by those who see less well. 
People aren't complaining because the people doing are almost entirely made 
up of a class of people with good vision, people who do it because they don't 
have undue visual obstacles to doing it.

Imagine Joe's going to buy a PC with a bigger display than his old PC used. 
Why bigger? Does he:

A-want more stuff to fit on his virtual desktop?
B-want the same stuff on his virtual desktop to be bigger?
C-want some of both A and B?

> There is a considerable practical problem with making the text in the
> installer any larger, which is that we'd wind up with far more 'all the
> bits don't fit in the screen and the rendering is corrupt' bugs: we
> already have problems with multiple spokes in multiple languages at
> 800x600, which are rather hard to fix.

http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/Fedora/anaconda19tc3-01welcome-1200-096.png 
demonstrates several characteristics that cause legibility problems with 
current Anaconda:

1-descriptive smaller text is (reduced contrast) gray, not black
2-font used is apparently Cantarell, which is a relatively diminutive 
physical size for its nominal size compared to the more commonly used, and 
Fedora configured system-wide default, DejaVu Sans
3-X DPI is forced to 96, which on the higher density 1600x1200 screen 
installation and image were made on is in error by making everything 18.75% 
shorter and narrower physically than its nominal size
4-nominal font size is 10pt, which in every legitimate web usability report 
I've read is the recommended minimum size ever be used on the web, and then 
only when other factors that reduce legibility are not present
5-Even its headings have shorter apparent x-height than default size and 
family desktop UI text

http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/Fedora/anasoft0768v1200.jpg shows a 15" 1024x768 LCD 
with closest face point vertically aligned with closest face point of below 
19.8" CRT with preferred resolution 1600x1200. The former is 85.3 DPI, the 
latter 101, or 18.4% (nominally) denser.

In the image, the top of the CRT frame has 4 blocks of 7 rows of "X Window 
System with a choice of window manager" in sizes 6pt through 12pt. Those 
words in the LCD measure 94mm wide. The same in the CRT measure 80mm wide. 
Using width as the gauge of text size, the smaller display has (nominally) 
17.5% bigger text. Based on the line lengths of 11pt & 12pt in the printed 
Cantarell block, those 94mm 1024x768 lines are about 11.6pt. Based on the 
line length of 10pt in the printed Cantarell block, those 80mm 1600x1200 
lines are about 9.875pt, which would be closer to exactly 10pt on a 20" 
1600x1200 LCD. To sum up, the 15" display is rendering text that is nominally 
16%/34.6% physically bigger than the text on the nominally 33%/77.8% 
physically bigger display.

So, if Joe is a type A guy, there is a reasonable chance Joe will be happy 
getting so much more onto the bigger screen. Maybe he won't, if yet more but 
smaller stuff to go along with it isn't expected or appreciated. OTOH, if Joe 
is a type C guy, there's a virtual certainty he's not happy that everything 
is so much smaller on his bigger, more expensive display.

So, what do the Anaconda devs have to offer type C people? Tell them to just 
go away? Tell them to get smaller displays? Hire someone to install and 
configure it specially?

Most store salesman probably don't know what display density means, much less 
is for any given product on his display shelves. Maybe Joe doesn't get to 
pick his display. Suggesting more astute display shopping is not likely 
helpful or good PR.

What is Joe, or anyone else, supposed to do to experience less discomfort 
installing, or even get Fedora installed at all? I tried Ctrl++. It doesn't 
do anything. I looked for something on the initial boot screen. I didn't see 
any mention of accessibility. Does A11Y not matter? Is Fedora intended just 
for a visual elite?

BTW, this reply could have come much sooner but for hitting 
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=974467 at least 9 times out of 10 
in the mean time trying to get the photograph of two Anaconda screens at once.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/