3 ms·

> 1cm on a mobile device and 1cm on a desktop You lost me. How is 1cm on a mobile device not the same as 1 cm on a desktop. Yes, they have different pixels res

> 1cm on a mobile device and 1cm on a desktop You lost me. How is 1cm on a mobile device not the same as 1 cm on a desktop. Yes, they have different pixels resolutions within that centimeter, but the length of a centimeter doesn't change. Well, unless the engineers are fudging the standard so marketing isn't seen to be lying.

bzbarsky 12y ago
The difference is that they look like different sizes to the user because of the different viewing distance. The really user-relevant size is subtended angle, not linear size, which is why the "px" unit in CSS was defined the way it was.
- masklinn 12y ago
  It's worse than that, there's the visual effect from angular size and the "manipulative" effect from interaction device. For instance, because it's used with fat and impressive fingers a smartphone held close to your face (and thus with a high angular size for its physical size) needs to provide much bigger controls (in both angular and absolute terms) than a desktop computer manipulated through a mouse. And of course this isn't linear as manipulating e.g. a Wii through its remote is also very impressive.
masklinn 12y ago
> You lost me. How is 1cm on a mobile device not the same as 1 cm on a desktop. That's because you stopped there and didn't read the rest of the phrase. > Yes, they have different pixels resolutions within that centimeter That's not relevant in any way, shape or form, the issue would exist even if all devices had the exact same pixel density. > the length of a centimeter doesn't change. The length of a cm doesn't change, but what you can do with it changes a lot due to different viewing distances: a cm at 20cm, a cm at 80cm and a cm at 3m are very different visual beasts, and so are a cm manipulated using fat fingers, a mouse, a stylus or some sort of laser/ir pointer.

3 ms·

> 1cm on a mobile device and 1cm on a desktop You lost me. How is 1cm on a mobile device not the same as 1 cm on a desktop. Yes, they have different pixels res

by drivingmenuts 12y ago

bzbarsky 12y ago
The difference is that they look like different sizes to the user because of the different viewing distance. The really user-relevant size is subtended angle, not linear size, which is why the "px" unit in CSS was defined the way it was.
- masklinn 12y ago
  It's worse than that, there's the visual effect from angular size and the "manipulative" effect from interaction device. For instance, because it's used with fat and impressive fingers a smartphone held close to your face (and thus with a high angular size for its physical size) needs to provide much bigger controls (in both angular and absolute terms) than a desktop computer manipulated through a mouse. And of course this isn't linear as manipulating e.g. a Wii through its remote is also very impressive.
masklinn 12y ago
> You lost me. How is 1cm on a mobile device not the same as 1 cm on a desktop. That's because you stopped there and didn't read the rest of the phrase. > Yes, they have different pixels resolutions within that centimeter That's not relevant in any way, shape or form, the issue would exist even if all devices had the exact same pixel density. > the length of a centimeter doesn't change. The length of a cm doesn't change, but what you can do with it changes a lot due to different viewing distances: a cm at 20cm, a cm at 80cm and a cm at 3m are very different visual beasts, and so are a cm manipulated using fat fingers, a mouse, a stylus or some sort of laser/ir pointer.