How the registered devices are drawn
Three layouts for one block: the devices registered with the RomM server for save-file sync. Everything else on the
page is identical across the three so the comparison is about the block alone. Switch above. B was
chosen.
- Width
- The panel is 854 px and the content 806 px. The section list takes
264 px, leaving about 530 px for the detail pane. Drawn on the same stage as
the other studies, 854 × 534.
- Height
- The scarce axis. The Library study measured about 263 px of body — but with a tab row.
Settings has no tabs and gets that height back. What hangs below the fold is still reachable only by moving
focus.
- The facts per device
- The server answers with five: name, client, client version, platform, last seen — plus an id and the
“this device” mark.
- What the client column holds
- The rows above are the mix a real listing carries: this plugin registers as
Tender since
0.33, RomM keeps what earlier versions wrote under decky-romm-sync, and RomM's own frontend
registers web. Those older rows do not expire, which is why the column is sized for the longest of
the three rather than for today's name.
- Why it was a question at all
- The Tables rule asks for aligned columns, because a device row carries more than two facts. But every other
row in this pane is a Steam
Field — label left, value right — so a grid here is the only content
on the page in a second visual language.
A — the shape it has today
‹ Tender
‹ BackSettings
Connections
Save Sync
Controller
Steam Library
Advanced
Save file sorting changed
Your saves are stored the old way.
MigrateDismiss
Save Sync
Enable save sync
This deviceSteam Deck
Rename ›
Sync before launch
Sync after exit
Default slotSlot 1 ›
Version history limit10
Sync all now›
Registered Devices A
Steam Deck(this device)
Tender v0.33.0 · linux · last seen just now · ID a1b2c3d4
Living-room PC
decky-romm-sync v0.31.0 · linux · last seen 3 Sep · ID 7f2e91bc
Chrome on Linux
web v148 · linux · last seen 12 Jun · ID c05a44d1
nothing to build3 devices = 6 rowsmatches the rows above it
- A
Name on top, everything else small underneath as one sentence
with separators. This is what the plugin renders today.
- ·
Comparing means reading. Whether the living-room machine runs
an older client sits mid-sentence — at a different place in every row, because the names differ in
length.
- ·
Two rows per device. Three devices cost six rows; eight cost
sixteen, half of them small print.
- ·
What it buys: nothing stands out. The block looks like the
toggles and values above it because it is built from the same pieces.
B — three columns with a header · chosen
‹ Tender
‹ BackSettings
Connections
Save Sync
Controller
Steam Library
Advanced
Save file sorting changed
Your saves are stored the old way.
MigrateDismiss
Save Sync
Enable save sync
This deviceSteam Deck
Rename ›
Sync before launch
Sync after exit
Default slotSlot 1 ›
Version history limit10
Sync all now›
Registered Devices 3
| Device | Client | Last seen |
|---|
| Steam Deck(this) | Tender v0.33.0 | just now |
| Living-room PC | decky-romm-sync v0.31.0 | 3 Sep |
| Chrome on Linux | web v148 | 12 Jun |
~50 lines plus its test3 devices = 4 rows incl. headerplatform and id drop out
- B
Values line up. Last seen answers a relative time while a
device is recent and a bare date once it is not, so a column of them separates the machines that are still
around from the ones that are not — a glance, where a sentence is a read.
- ·
One row per device. Eight devices cost nine rows instead of
sixteen, on the axis the Deck is short of.
- ·
Two facts drop out: the platform and the shortened id. The id
only helps when two devices share a name; the platform is practically always the same value.
- ·
It is the shape the Platforms detail already uses for BIOS
files under File / On disk / Contents, so the two pages read alike.
- !
The objection: in this pane it is the only content with column
headers. On the Platforms detail it does not stand out, because everything there is built that way. That ends
when the Settings panes are written against the same pane primitives.
C — two columns, no header row
‹ Tender
‹ BackSettings
Connections
Save Sync
Controller
Steam Library
Advanced
Save file sorting changed
Your saves are stored the old way.
MigrateDismiss
Save Sync
Enable save sync
This deviceSteam Deck
Rename ›
Sync before launch
Sync after exit
Default slotSlot 1 ›
Version history limit10
Sync all now›
Registered Devices 3
Steam Deck(this device)Tender v0.33.0
just now
Living-room PCdecky-romm-sync v0.31.0
3 Sep
Chrome on Linuxweb v148
12 Jun
~20 lines plus its test3 devices = 6 rowsno header row
- C
The middle. Last seen right-aligned like every other value on
the page — it is the fact people actually compare. The client stays small under the name.
- ·
No break in the language. It reads like “Default slot ▸ Slot
1”, because it is the same shape: label left, value right.
- ·
But still two rows per device, and the client versions still do
not line up — they are only shorter than today.
- ·
Without headers “just now” has to speak for itself. For a
last-seen time it does; for a column of bare numbers it would not.
Side by side
| A — today | B — three columns | C — two columns |
|---|
| Rows at 3 devices | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| Rows at 8 devices | 16 | 9 | 16 |
| Values line up | no | all three | last seen only |
| Matches the rest of the pane | yes | no — the only content with column headers | yes |
| What the Tables rule asks for | no | yes | in part |
| Facts dropped | none | platform, id | platform, id |
| Cost | none — it is built | ~50 lines + test | ~20 lines + test |
Chosen: B
One row per device is worth the break in language on the axis the Deck is short of, and the break itself is
temporary: it ends when the remaining Settings panes are written against the same pane primitives the Platforms
detail uses. The platform and the shortened id are dropped with it — the id only distinguishes devices that share a
name, and the platform is practically always the same value.