[ocicat]

Originally Posted by xmorg

...so preset where?

For compiled applications, resources can either be configured at compile-time or dynamically at run-time. The advantage of compile-time configuration is an obvious performance gain, whereas run-time configuration has to be parsed during execution. For the dynamic languages, most of this kind of configuration is hard-coded in the application's source, but the actions of creating dialogs is still done at run-time.

...is it a matter of hacking source code?

Yes, but going down this path means you are taking on additional responsibility in one of three ways:

• You will have to track your custom changes, & apply them to updated applications as they become available.
• You get to determine if your fixes continue to work in new versions of the application. As code bases evolve, your hacks may no longer work. You may end up continually chasing & monitoring the eccentricities of whatever projects are maintaining & enhancing the applications you use.
• Change the existing code once, but never update anything again. Ever.

All of these solutions have their shortcomings.

I'd suggest simply getting a bigger external monitor.

We are talking open source stuff here...

While Open Source implies access to source code, this doesn't mean a great deal unless one has the skill set & knowledge to modify it, or is willing to pay someone else to do the same work. Secondly, someone needs the time to learn the code base. Most projects aren't written in ten lines of code. Most are of the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of lines if not more. Learning a substantial code base is not a trivial task or something that can be done in a weekend. A more prudent guess is to allocate months.