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0 pointsp_ing1y ago0 comments

At what point do you consider it an "environment variable" vs "application setting" (even when called an env var by the app)? Windows has it's explicit env vars and GUI or CLI methods to set them, but if I was changing something about Explorer or some other graphical portion of the OS, I'd be going to the registry, for example. Setting the display resolution or scaling factor would be another registry entry, though I'd be using a purpose-built GUI for that.

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EndShell1y ago· 2 in thread

Well with QT_SCALE_FACTOR is goes and tells all the QT to behave in a particular way. It isn't a per application setting.

There is a similar environment variable for Steam on Linux and I would argue that it should be an application setting but for whatever reason it isn't.

Both of these are hacks around how Xorg (doesn't) handle fractional scaling.

p_ingOP1y ago

> Well with QT_SCALE_FACTOR is goes and tells all the QT to behave in a particular way. It isn't a per application setting.

I understand that, but your window server is just another application. On Windows I wouldn't consider scale factor being an env var, and indeed it isn't set as such -- rather that value is set in the registry.

Maybe that's the answer -- Windows has a defacto method of setting system-wide env vars that every application inherits within a given personality but Linux/BSD does not.

I can live with that answer :-)

jillyboel1y ago

No, it's talking about QT: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt-toolkit

Not the window server.

QT is a library that applications can use to render their GUIs, so there are many instances of QT in all of the apps that use it.

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