[Novalug] virtual scrolling ?

[Jon LaBadie]

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 09:46:34AM -0400, Kevin Starkey wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> A guy on twitter asked me about Linux support for 'virtual scrolling'.  
> I wasn't sure at first what he meant, but I think I get it now.
> 
> We both have a Dell Mini 9 netbook w/ screen rez 1024x600.  Some apps' 
> windows don't have a scroll bar so some of the items on the window can't 
> be seen (have tried many 'solutions' to no avail).  My current 
> 'solution' is to bring up the same window on another pc so I can see the 
> whole window, and then I just put the cursor in the last field I can see 
> then tab (blindly) the appropriate number of times and use the spacebar 
> to select/deselect ...  Not the best route.  I'm pretty sure this is the 
> situation he's referring to, so I guess 'virtual scrolling' would 
> somehow solve this 'problem' (allowing you to scroll to see those 'off 
> screen' fields).
> 
> I did some searching but I've come up empty.
> 
> Anyone have any info I could take advantage of and pass along?
> 

With today's auto-config, and not reading xorg.conf, I don't know.
But you used to be able to set a desktop size distinct from the
actual display size.  Then the display could be panned around the
virtual desktop space.

On the system I'm using I have an nVidia graphics card.  It has
a binary to set some of the card properties.  Among them is "enable
panning" and the a field to set the virtual display size.  It worked.
So this seems to be using the hardware to do what I recall doing in
the X-window or display manager software.

jl
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon at jgcomp.com
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