The Bloomberg Terminal has evolved from an 80x25 hardware terminal where the application layout was done remotely in our data centers. (Note, users and insiders refer to these as "functions" instead of "apps", but I'll use "app" throughout as it's likely more familiar to the HN audience).

When we ported it to a Win32/GDI program, the client was kept intentionally "dumb" and so resizing the window led to distorted text rendering. This was necessary to keep the 80x25 cells aligned, as the layout was meaningful.

Fast forward to the 2010s and we started offering our app developers a way to implement "more content" when resizing rather than just stretching it. Note also that there are plenty of "form"-style or "calculator"-style apps where there is no more content to show; in those cases resizing just adds more negative space around the UI. Now we are in the 2020s, and most of the apps have adapted to either "more content" or "more negative space" as needed.

There are ~1000 apps on the terminal and they all have their own roadmaps and business deliverables, so UI upkeep cannot always be a priority.

Opinions my own, etc.

EDIT: the above information is still correct, even if the <img> tag in the OP article is distorted.

That is an old screenshot. The Bloomberg Terminal currently uses a fantastic set of proprietary fonts designed for the company by Matthew Carter (who did Georgia and Verdana).

See https://www.bloomberg.com/company/stories/how-bloomberg-term...

Also see previous discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11717351

Their users would revolt, it's a point of pride for B-unit holders to show off how well they can use seemingly inscrutable UIs.

I'm not even sure if it's just how that font/typeface looks like, or the whole image is stretched horizontally.