Why is E3’s unit of measurement HIMETRIC, and not pixels? What is the conversion factor?
Solution:
A pixel-based system relies directly on computer’s resolution. For example, a screen developed in 800×600 pixels can become too small when viewed in a 1200×1024 monitor. When E3 was first developed, the idea was to have a unit of measurement for screen objects that did not depend on the client’s screen resolution. This unit had to be expressed in real numbers (and not integers, like pixels). Considering all the available alternatives, we chose to use HIMETRIC, the ActiveX’s unit of measurement. In E3, HIMETRIC is used for setting coordinates of screen objects, while pixels are used for setting the size of frames that display these screens (if the user wants to choose a specific size). 1 (one) Pixel is roughly the same as 26.4 HIMETRIC units.
