[dba-VS] Visual Basic 2012 - Change Form & Controls Based On Screen Resolution

[Arthur Fuller]

I find this an interesting discussion because it involves several somewhat
sensitive subjects. Obviously no sensible corporation or branch of
government would mandate a screen resolution. On the other hand, how is the
developer to cope with this?

One approach is to code for the minimal resolution, and perhaps to add code
that detects higher resolutions.

That approach has extended into the world of smart-phones and tablets; and
one response to this problem has been "responsive apps", which auto-detect
the platform's capabilities (touch-aware or just mouse and keyboard), and
change their behaviour and screen layout to suit the instance.

It extends further: suppose the user is blind and needs audio-assistance.
Do we build that into the UI? I guess that depends on the size of the
potential user base. Maybe if the client is a large
state/province/canton/principality, then it may make sense to include this
in the budget, but for your average Mon 'n' Pop it may be overkill.

I confess that in my ~30 years of app-development, this has never come up.
But a couple of sort-of related episodes did, and these involved users
suffering from cerebral palsy. This resulted in a radically retuned
approach to user-training, and also serious UI changes to make every
command available without serious contortions as pressing three keys at
once (Ctrl-Shift-Insert, for example).

I have painted the landscape for this question, which I do truly regard as
serious, and I wish to inquire a) whether you've faced this problem; b) how
you negotiated the extra costs, and c) how you dealt with the problem and
delivered a workable solution. Oh yes, maybe there's a d) assuming c), in
which you dealt with the situation and delivered a successful solution, did
this increase your creds in these environments (i.e. word got around that
your firm could handle this stuff)?

Just curious.
Arthur
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