This Bugzilla instance is a read-only archive of historic NetBeans bug reports. To report a bug in NetBeans please follow the project's instructions for reporting issues.
1. runide.sh -fontsize 18 2. open Help Help text should be in font size as specified above.
JavaHelp is an external application.
a11y is the module, this is A11Y issue
Resolved for 3.4.x or earlier, no new info since then -> verified.
Resolved for 3.4.x or earlier, no new info since then -> closing.
The fact that "JavaHelp is an external application" is just a technical detail. If it is easy to pass the font size to the "external application", do it. Otherwise provide more details on why it is hard or not doable.
Now we run JavaHelp inside of IDE. Font size given on command line is passed also to JavaHelp GUI. However displayed content on right size is different story. Its font size is controled by CSS netbeans.css. Patrick is there any easy way how to control font size (base font size as actual font size is relative to base font size)?
In fact I don't know what is possible, and I can't remember why we use designations like "small", "medium" instead of "10", "12", etc., though I think that the former is better for some reason. I suppose that something could be programatically done so that when somebody typed in e.g. fontsize=18, all of the font sizes in the CSS could be adjusted upwards proportionately. True?
'In fact I don't know what is possible, and I can't remember why we use designations like "small", "medium" instead of "10", "12", etc., though I think that the former is better for some reason.' The reason is that "font size 10" means "size 10 pixels" but the absolute size (in milimeters) varies substantially depending on the display used for viewing text. For example if the user is using a 17" CRT monitor and resolution 1024x768, 10 pixels measure 1/8" ~ 3,2 mm. But if the user is using a 15,4" notebook having display resolution 1400x1050 (e.g. my Toshiba Tecra M3), 10 pixels measure only 2,2 mm. So the font size may be suitable for the user of the 17" CRT monitor but it may be too small for the user of the notebook. It is better to define font size in vague terms like "medium", "large", "extra large", etc. and let the application, output device and the user (i.e. according to his/her preferences) transform these terms to absolute sizes in pixels. I am ready to give you more explanation and demonstration of problems caused by using absolute pixel sizes. I encounter these difficulties every day. "I suppose that something could be programatically done so that when somebody typed in e.g. fontsize=18, all of the font sizes in the CSS could be adjusted upwards proportionately. True?" There is no need to program anything. The program for displaying HTML pages should already contain such algorithms. It normally works such that a single setting is given, e.g. "medium = 15 pixels" and the program then derives absolute sizes of "large", "medium", etc. based on its built-in ratios (e.g. "large = 1.4 x medium", "extra large = 1.8 x medium", etc.). All common web browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror, etc.) work this way. I assume that the Swing's HTML browser supports this mechanism, too.
AFAIK we use relative font sizes to be able to set base size and then it is possible to derive all relative font sizes. Regarding "Swing HTML browser". It is NOT about Swing HTML browser. We use JavaHelp and it uses internaly JEditorPane with html editor kit to display HTML content in content viewer. I do not know about any API to change base font size which would override base size given in CSS. I will look at it and ask JavaHelp team if there is any way how to do that. Patrick is ide.css correct CSS used for JavaHelp content? We use aliases small, medium, large. These are defined in Swing AFAIK. I do not knowif it is possible to change them without changing anything else. Perhaps it would be possible to define our own aliases which we could change at runtime/startup without hurting anything else. But I am not expert in this area so any help would be welcome. I will investigate it further. I expect then we could use fontsize passed to IDE as default base size for small and then set percentage increase like it is set now (125%, 150% or whatever it is in Swing).
You can also look at http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4844652
Bug 4844652 is just a read-only mirror of IssueZilla bug #32667 ("Help View doesn't show help in right fontsize when -fontsize startup parameter is used.") I suggest that we close this issue as a duplicate of that bug - it contains much more technical information.
Informational value of issue #32667 is the same as here - no solution at sight... I agree we should make dupl to keep discussion at one place. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 32667 ***