Glasses and moving statements

[jakkjakk]

Ok, maybe this is probably a little too geeky, but anyone notice that if you wear glasses and you move your head side to side while looking at the editor that the control statements shift left to right?

[Atheist]

1. I have no idea what you mean. Could you elaborate?
2. Is this really a VB.NET question?

[si_the_geek]

Thread moved to 'General Discussion / Chit Chat' forum, which is where off-topic discussions belong

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have no idea what you mean, either, but I would like to add this question: Are the glasses polarized?

[mendhak]

Ok, maybe this is probably a little too geeky, but anyone notice that if you wear glasses and you move your head side to side while looking at the editor that the control statements shift left to right?

Yes, but only if you are moving your head too fast for your eyeballs to stay focused on one spot.

[abhijit]

Ok, maybe this is probably a little too geeky, but anyone notice that if you wear glasses and you move your head side to side while looking at the editor that the control statements shift left to right?

How long do I need to keep moving my head? This isn't working for me.

[jakkjakk]

I don't know if the glasses need to be polarized.

if blah=true then

for i =0 to 10 step 1

For me if you move your head left to right you should see the "if" and "Then" and the "For" "To" "Step" move and the other parts stay in place.

[Shaggy Hiker]

What happens if you put a comment ' before one of the lines?

If it still moves, what happens if you then take out the space between the for and the i (of course, the line would have to be commented for that to even work)?

Does the movement of the pieces cause them to impinge on the immobile items? If not, what happens to the space?

Have you been taking medications?

[jakkjakk]

No I haven't been taking medications. I swear if you move your head left to right while keeping your eye's fixated on the editor the condition statements move. Only seems to work with glasses though.

[EntityX]

It probably has to do with the prescription of glasses you have. The thickness of glass that you are looking through varies slightly as you move your head side to side.

[jakkjakk]

I guess it's just me... I don't know.

[NickThissen]

I think it's just your brain concentrating on the part that matters (the condition) and ignoring the part you see every 10 milliseconds in any code (the If/Else words).

[jakkjakk]

I don't think so... I swear they move!!!!

Aliens do exist!!

[Shaggy Hiker]

Did you try the other things I suggested, or just focus on my suggestion that you are doing drugs? The rest were actually serious questions, and here's another one:

Try the same thing, but on the line:

Dim Ifst1 as String = "Then"

Try the same thing, but on the line:

'bl awae=girag drtds

You can probably see what the various tests are getting at, but in case you can't, they are addressing whether it is the first and last parts of any code statement, whether random junk will do the same thing if arranged in a similar fashion, and so forth.

[NickThissen]

You seem to be thinking along the same lines as me Shaggy (or aren't you?). Looking at comments is very different from looking at syntax highlighted code. I think that will make a different, as your brain looks at it completely different. The code isn't colorized for no reason you know, it helps your brain (not your eyes...) read it without even having to read all the words explicitly.

I think it's more or less the same as waht hpapnes if you raed wdros that hvae tiehr iennr ltetrs scermblad. Still perfectly legible (or maybe that's just because I wrote it, hmm..)
Your brain doesn't look at each letter one by one, but merely recognizes the shape of the word. In coding, it's probably the indenting and color that helps a lot too.

[Shaggy Hiker]

No, actually, I wasn't thinking along the lines that you were, though I certainly think you have made some excellent points. In fact, I believe you have probably hit on the best possible answer. I was actually headed down the road of testing whether or not this was a 'real' thing, or something that was all in jakkjakks mind. Of course, everything we do visually is 'all in our mind' to such a degree that it actually is real. This seems like it would be an optical illusion, and I was suggesting ways to test whether it was just that, or if there was something physically happening on the monitor.

Now that you have mentioned syntax coloring, that makes the issue more complex. Testing with comments would still be an excellent test, but if nothing happens for uni-color text, the problem gets a bit more complex. On many types of LCD monitors, different colors have different visibilities at different angles. It may be that different colors appear to jump when seen through a prism. Is this an effect of the brain-eye connection, or an effect of the monitor?

Jakkjakk, it is your solemn and sacred duty to study this further!!

[NickThissen]

Well, it's certainly true of course that different colors refract differently through a prism, as the glass's refractive index is dependent on the wavelength ( = color) of the light. However, that change in direction is really very tiny, and I don't think it will make a detectable difference through glasses.

Now I think about it, if my explanation is to be correct, it should 'work' the same way without glasses... Except of course his vision is bad enough to not be able to read the words properly anymore.

[mendhak]

Do you have myopia or hypermetropia? I've had myopia since I was a little spermatozoa (I was the fastest one because I was trying to get away from the bullies), and growing up, I had to wear thick lenses. I noticed that looking at things from different viewing angles from within the area covered by the glasses produced refractory effects. Depending on the quality of the glasses, you get that to varying degrees as the manufacturers will create it in such a way that the best area for viewing is right at the center.

Try this: Instead of moving your head from side to side, try fixing your eyes on the editor and move your head back and forth with your ears as the axis of rotation (like nodding). Do you see the movement occur as you near the edges of the glasses?

It's only after I got those thinner lenses (that cost more, so I wear them for years) that I noticed that what I had been experiencing wasn't actually what the world looked like.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've had myopia since I was a little spermatozoa (I was the fastest one because I was trying to get away from the bullies.

Perhaps, but back then, you weren't half the man you are today.

[penagate]

I think it's more or less the same as waht hpapnes if you raed wdros that hvae tiehr iennr ltetrs scermblad. Still perfectly legible (or maybe that's just because I wrote it, hmm..)
Your brain doesn't look at each letter one by one, but merely recognizes the shape of the word. In coding, it's probably the indenting and color that helps a lot too.

I know this is a little off topic, but I wanted to point out that the "order of letters in a word is irrelevant except for the first and last letters" theory is misleading at best. Most people do read words by recognising their shapes but jumbling letters within a word often makes it totally illegible. The examples that float around ("researchers from Cambridge University...") consist mostly of short, simple words which are jumbled in a way which doesn't alter their shape very much.

Notice also that you can jumble letters in such a fashion that they appear phonetically plausible ('researcher' to 'raceherser'). This distracts the reader's brain into thinking it ought to recognise the word but can't quite get it. (What's a 'raceherser'? Does he mean 'racehorse'? What's a horse got to do with linguistics?...)

[penagate]

if blah=true then

for i =0 to 10 step 1

For me if you move your head left to right you should see the "if" and "Then" and the "For" "To" "Step" move and the other parts stay in place.

Yes! And then the unicorn appears from behind the rainbow!

I must go; my home planet is calling.

[EntityX]

Well, it's certainly true of course that different colors refract differently through a prism, as the glass's refractive index is dependent on the wavelength ( = color) of the light. However, that change in direction is really very tiny, and I don't think it will make a detectable difference through glasses.

I noticed that the back color that you use for a label can affect the clarity of the type. I started a thread back in March on the subject. If I use magenta as a back color for a label the clarity of the type is noticeably reduced, at least on my monitor. Clarity of type in Labels affected by backcolor

[penagate]

I noticed that the back color that you use for a label can affect the clarity of the type. I started a thread back in March on the subject. If I use magenta as a back color for a label the clarity of the type is noticeably reduced, at least on my monitor. Clarity of type in Labels affected by backcolor

That's because your system is configured to use subpixel type hinting ('ClearType') and this causes coloured fringing around each letter which can clash noticably with the background.

Also, because subpixel hinting relies on the screen's subpixel arrangement, you should configure it manually for each screen. Windows Vista and 7 include a ClearType configuration utility which lets you select the appropriate subpixel order and there is a downloadable 'PowerToy' for Windows XP. It is not possible to tell by looking at a screenshot whether or not you are using the right ordering.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I know this is a little off topic, but I wanted to point out that the "order of letters in a word is irrelevant except for the first and last letters" theory is misleading at best. Most people do read words by recognising their shapes but jumbling letters within a word often makes it totally illegible. The examples that float around ("researchers from Cambridge University...") consist mostly of short, simple words which are jumbled in a way which doesn't alter their shape very much.

Notice also that you can jumble letters in such a fashion that they appear phonetically plausible ('researcher' to 'raceherser'). This distracts the reader's brain into thinking it ought to recognise the word but can't quite get it. (What's a 'raceherser'? Does he mean 'racehorse'? What's a horse got to do with linguistics?...)

I believe that this shows that Penagate is hooked on phonics. There is probably a twelve step program to help with that, but first he has to admit that he has a problem.

[penagate]

I'm hooked on ebonics, yo.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm hooked on ebonics, yo.

See?!?! Still in denial.