In the Sketch demo script there is the following comment:
We use a quadratic canvas, so that the same image can be used in portrait and landscape orientation
Can someone explain what this means? Is this why 'sheet' presentation used to default to a "square" section of the screen?
Quadratic = second order, I.e. Involving terms up to the square of a variable. So it seems like this was just a strange way of saying a square canvas, either by someone with a mathematical sense of humor, or else a nonnative English speaker using a poor translation service.
In German "Quadrat" and "quadratisch" are the noun/adjective for "square". I never noticed that before, because "quadratic" sounds so normal to me as a native German speaker. (What do you call an equation like ƒ(x) = x^2 in English?)
A function like ƒ(x) = x^2 would be called quadratic (second order as JonB said) but anything with square like properties should be labeled as square or one of its derivatives (squarish, squarelike, or squared). I'm not sure why the canvas is described as quadratic but a translation issues sounds like a possible reason.
"square canvas" = "Quadrat Leinwand"
I am not sure who wrote the Sketch demo, but I thought it was omz. He is German - right? So your theory is likely correct. He was probably just saying that he wanted a square canvas in so that the app would run fine in either portrait or landscape.
I thought it was implying some other feature like scalable or resolution independence. Kind of funny. I have noticed that very few scripts seem to deal with screen size and portrait/landscape. I have been searching for a good one that shows best practice on this since I don't have an iPhone (just and iPad). I am concerned that any scripts that I write will work poorly on the iPhone. Thinking that Pythonista could have a "simulate iPhonex/iPadx" mode or something.
Your theory is correct, I meant a square canvas. I guess that's what we call "Denglish" here (portmanteau of Deutsch (German) and English).