[comp.sys.amiga] FastFonts

CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) (01/18/89)

ARRRGh!!!
I' ve just spent a futile 30 minutes doing my damnedest to
get fast fonts to work on my system.

the font is cleanII, there is a cleanII.font and a cleanII directory
with 8 in it int fonts:, and if I type out the cleanII.font file in
hex mode, it references cleanII/8, so that part is right...

using the enhancer manual statement of FF <fontname>
results in ff saying that it can't open cleanII.
(IE:  FF cleanII)

trying FF cleanII.font results in it saying that it can't open
cleanII.font twice...

finally, getting pissed off, I typed out the FF executible in
hex mode, and I see that there are a whole load of command line options
such as   B, 8, 9 , 0  F   N   Q  and 1
the enhancer manual only mentions the 0 and n options....

so, two questions....

What do i do to get FF to substitute cleanII in place of ugly little topaz,
what are the other command line options, and OOPS, thirdly,
what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
charater set when you type an executible without the opt h

Thanks for the Help....
I need it

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan P. Crone    CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET      cronejp@mcl.UUCP

Heisenberg might have been here...

brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) (01/18/89)

In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) writes:
>ARRRGh!!!
>I' ve just spent a futile 30 minutes doing my damnedest to
>get fast fonts to work on my system.
 [ ... ]
>results in ff saying that it can't open cleanII.
>(IE:  FF cleanII)
>
>trying FF cleanII.font results in it saying that it can't open
>cleanII.font twice...
>
>What do i do to get FF to substitute cleanII in place of ugly little topaz,

If you are using the Dillon/Drew shell, you must first quit the shell then type

FF clean.font

then you can re-enter the shell.  It would probably make life easier if you
put this line in your startup-sequence.  FF is just much too picky about 
what it finds on the command line.


>what are the other command line options, and OOPS, thirdly,
>what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
>charater set when you type an executible without the opt h

Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
will be hunky.

>
>Thanks for the Help....
>I need it
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>Jonathan P. Crone    CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET      cronejp@mcl.UUCP
>
>Heisenberg might have been here...


You're welcome.


-Gary Brant	ARPA:	brant@uf.msc.umn.edu

#include <std/disclaimer.h>

cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/19/89)

In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> (Jonathan Crone) writes:
->                                              ...  thirdly,
->what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
->charater set when you type an executible without the opt h

In article <10865@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) writes:
->Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
->the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
->will be hunky.

Well can't you just type ^O and get the regular characters back ? I don't
use the dillon/drew shell so I don't know if this is trapped but I don't
think it would be. Oh, and ^N will put your back into funky character mode.
(ASCII codes for SI == Shift In, SO == Shift Out)

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.

brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) (01/19/89)

In article <85848@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes:
>In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> (Jonathan Crone) writes:
>

[ stuff deleted ]

>
>In article <10865@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) writes:
>->Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
>->the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
>->will be hunky.
>
>Well can't you just type ^O and get the regular characters back ? I don't
>use the dillon/drew shell so I don't know if this is trapped but I don't
>think it would be. Oh, and ^N will put your back into funky character mode.
>(ASCII codes for SI == Shift In, SO == Shift Out)


Alas, this does not work; I have tried this to no avail.  Perhaps this 
has something to do with Steve Drew's RAW console code; I don't know.  At
any rate, just exiting the shell seems to clear things up without needing
to type ^O or anything else.


>--Chuck McManis


-Gary Brant	ARPA:	brant@uf.msc.umn.edu


My employer knows nothing about my ravings.

me128-aw@kepler.Berkeley.EDU (me128 student) (01/19/89)

In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) writes:
>ARRRGh!!!
>I' ve just spent a futile 30 minutes doing my damnedest to
>get fast fonts to work on my system.
>
>finally, getting pissed off, I typed out the FF executible in
>hex mode, and I see that there are a whole load of command line options
>such as   B, 8, 9 , 0  F   N   Q  and 1
>the enhancer manual only mentions the 0 and n options....
>

I'm sorry I can't answer your questions, but I can pose one of my own
(yeah, like that's what you really want to hear.)

-> How ( if possible) can I get fast fonts to work with a 11-point font?
   If I can't, is there a program out there which can?
   (I know one of the fish disk has a replacement for the text() which does
    this)
   If not, is there any chance of a fix for ff to handle this?

-Thanks

-Vincent H. Lee

ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (01/19/89)

In article <85848@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes:
<In article <10865@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) writes:
<->Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
<->the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
<->will be hunky.

<Well can't you just type ^O and get the regular characters back ? I don't
<use the dillon/drew shell so I don't know if this is trapped but I don't
<think it would be. Oh, and ^N will put your back into funky character mode.
<(ASCII codes for SI == Shift In, SO == Shift Out)

The Dillon/Drew shell traps the ^O.  You can get it to output the ^O
with the command 'echo ^O'.  That's carat-o not control-o.  You could
make it part of your prompt if you find this happening to you often.
E.g. 'set _prompt ^o$'

-- 
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP

aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) (01/19/89)

In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) writes:
>ARRRGh!!!
>I' ve just spent a futile 30 minutes doing my damnedest to
>get fast fonts to work on my system.

I'm sorry that it was futile, but I spent many more than 30 minutes tracking
down a bug in FF.
 
>the font is cleanII, there is a cleanII.font and a cleanII directory
>with 8 in it int fonts:, and if I type out the cleanII.font file in
>hex mode, it references cleanII/8, so that part is right...
>
>trying FF cleanII.font results in it saying that it can't open
>cleanII.font twice...

Well, the *.font format appears to be the way FF wants it. I had it complain
twice, too. Well, from what you said above, I would have expected FF to
find the font, but probably complain about its being proportional, when it
isn't.

>finally, getting pissed off, I typed out the FF executible in
>hex mode, and I see that there are a whole load of command line options
>such as   B, 8, 9 , 0  F   N   Q  and 1
>the enhancer manual only mentions the 0 and n options....

I can only add -q, which seems to completely unload the FastFonts code from
memory.

>What do i do to get FF to substitute cleanII in place of ugly little topaz,

Well, I did finally manage to get it to work. I had heard rumblings about
this back when 1.3 first came out. It appears that the FontEditor from
Commodore has a slight bug in that it will indicate that a font is both
a disk-based font and a ROM-based font when it saves a font. This would not
be a big problem if FF did things right. However, when FF tries to check to
see if the font is proportional, it doesn't check correctly. It should check
bit 5 in the ta_Flags variable which is stored with the font. Instead, it
ANDs 5 with ta_Flags, thus checking if it's a ROM-based font or a right-to-
left printing font. I believe this was a simple, one character typo in the
source, but I'm surprised it didn't get caught, as it failed to work with
ANY of the 8x8 fonts I had laying around.

The way to fix this problem, once you get FF to the point of only complaining
about the font being proportional, is to edit the '8' file in the directory.
Starting about 100 bytes into the file (pearl is 100, it might differ), you
should find something like '000800430008'. The eights should be the same,
but the middle value may differ. You need to be sure that bits 0 and 2 are
both clear. In this case, setting it to 42 will both work and be correct.
All values are in hex. The best program I know of to make this modification
is John Hodgeson's NewZap program.
Let me know how it all works out. I'm now using my cli and term program with
pearl.font and I love it!

>what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
>charater set when you type an executible without the opt h

When the console.device sees a ctrl-O, it will go into the alternate character
mode. Typing a ctrl-N should get it back to normal.
 
>Heisenberg might have been here...

That's MY quote!!! (Imagine that! I'm not the only one who thought of this!-)

-- 
Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc.         "A mime is a terrible thing to waste."
                                                             -- Robin Williams
ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu   {uunet|ncoast}!marque!
UUCP:   {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!aaron

ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (01/20/89)

In article <27596@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> me128-aw@kepler.Berkeley.EDU (me128 student) writes:
>-> How ( if possible) can I get fast fonts to work with a 11-point font?
>   If I can't, is there a program out there which can?
>   (I know one of the fish disk has a replacement for the text() which does
>    this)
>   If not, is there any chance of a fix for ff to handle this?

The version of fastfonts that you could buy from MicroSmiths had an
option that will enable it to work with an 11 point text.
Unfortunately, I don't think that feature is in the one released with
the 1.3 operating system.  The other program that I'm aware of is
Blitzfonts.  In addition to the freely distributable 8 point version,
Hayes Haugen wrote versions for 9 points through about 16 points.
He promised to send you these versions in return for a shareware fee.
Unfortunately, he then decided to blow off the Amiga community,
apparently.  Anyone foolish enough to actually send him a shareware fee
got nothing but a blank check for his generousity.  

But the 9-16 point versions of Blitzfonts do exist.

-- 
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP

ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (01/20/89)

In article <15096@cisunx.UUCP> ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu I angrily write:
>Anyone foolish enough to actually send him [Hayes Haugen] a shareware fee
>got nothing but a blank check for his generousity.  

That should be 'canceled check' of course.

>But the 9-16 point versions of Blitzfonts do exist.

And would I love to send them to Bob Page.  Alas, they're definitely not
redistributable in this way, even if the author is a jerk.

-- 
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP

ecarroll@cs.tcd.ie (Eddy Carroll) (01/20/89)

In article <10865@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>, brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) writes:
> In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) writes:
> 
>>what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
>>charater set when you type an executible without the opt h
> 
> Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
> the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
> will be hunky.
> 

In a vanilla CLI, just typing <CTRL-O> BackSpace will be enough to reselect
the normal character set. In the Dillon/Drew Shell V2.08, I included the
sequence ^O in my _prompt, so the normal character set got selected at the
end of each command.  The Borreo/Dieni Shell V3.01 automatically does this
for you.

-- 
Eddy Carroll               ----* Genuine MUD Wizard  | "You haven't lived until
INTER: ecarroll@cs.tcd.ie                            |  until you've died in
 UUCP: {..uunet}!mcvax!ukc!cs.tcd.ie!csvax1!ecarroll |  MUD!" - Richard Bartle

shimoda@infohh.rmi.de (Markus Schmidt) (01/20/89)

In article <8901180336.AA01749@jade.berkeley.edu> CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET (Jonathan Crone) writes:
>ARRRGh!!!
>What do i do to get FF to substitute cleanII in place of ugly little topaz,
For me the command "FF topay.font" works well. Have you opened your
CleanII by some other command?
>what are the other command line options, and OOPS, thirdly,
Sorry, dunno
>what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
>charater set when you type an executible without the opt h
Just Type CTRL-O
>
>Thanks for the Help....
Plaease

.-----------------------------------------------------------------.
|  shimoda@rmi.de       `---'   The last remaining adventure      |
|  shimoda@gopnbg.UUCP  |O o|   since there are no more tigers:   |
|                       ==Y==   Doublebuffered async. I/O       _ |
|----------------------- `U' ------------------------------  _ // |
|  Good terminalpackages     begin with A: AmigaCall, A-Ta.. \//  |
`-----------------------------------------------------------------'

sennett@s.cs.uiuc.edu (01/20/89)

/* Written  9:21 pm  Jan 17, 1989 by CRONEJP@UREGINA1.BITNET in s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.amiga */
/* ---------- "Fast fonts...  (AkA, FF )" ---------- */
ARRRGh!!!
I' ve just spent a futile 30 minutes doing my damnedest to
get fast fonts to work on my system.

...

finally, getting pissed off, I typed out the FF executible in
hex mode, and I see that there are a whole load of command line options
such as   B, 8, 9 , 0  F   N   Q  and 1
the enhancer manual only mentions the 0 and n options....

so, two questions....

What do i do to get FF to substitute cleanII in place of ugly little topaz,
what are the other command line options, and OOPS, thirdly,
what to i do to reset my cli when it gets put into the alternate
charater set when you type an executible without the opt h

/* End of text from s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.amiga */

According to the docs I recieved with TxEd Plus, the command line options
for FF are as follows:

-8 Replace only the TOPAZ80 font with specified font
-9 Replace only the TOPAZ60 font with specified font
-0 Don't replace any fonts; just turn on fast text
-1 Turn on fast text for TOPAZ11 (good for interlace)
-q Turn off fast text

Hope this helps.  (It doesn't mention B, N, or F options ...)

Mike Sennett
sennett@s.cs.uiuc.edu  

df@nud.UUCP (Dale Farnsworth) (01/20/89)

In article <15096@cisunx.UUCP> ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) writes:
[deletions]
>Blitzfonts.
>Hayes Haugen wrote versions for 9 points through about 16 points.
>He promised to send you these versions in return for a shareware fee.
>Unfortunately, he then decided to blow off the Amiga community,
>apparently.  Anyone foolish enough to actually send him a shareware fee
>got nothing but a blank check for his generousity.  
>
>Eric Kennedy
>ejkst@cisunx.UUCP

Just a note to let you know that I sent Hayes a check because I enjoyed using
his 8 bit version, and he did send an improved version that would work with
bigger fonts.  Never did get around to trying it since the Fish Disk version
worked so well for my purposes.  Mine was marked Serial# 89.


|    // GOATS - Gladly Offering All Their Support  Dave Kinzer (602)897-3085|
|   //  >> In Hell you need 4Mb to Multitask!  <<  uunet!nud!fbog!dbk       |
| \X/   #define policy_maker(name) (name->salary > 3 * dave.salary)         |

mcr@julie.UUCP (Michael Richardson) (01/21/89)

>>In article <10865@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> brant@uf.msc.umn.edu (Gary Brant) writes:
>>->Again, if you are in the shell, you have to exit the shell to get out of
>>->the alternate character set.  You can then startup a new shell & everything
>>->will be hunky.
>>
>>Well can't you just type ^O and get the regular characters back ? I don't
>>use the dillon/drew shell so I don't know if this is trapped but I don't
>>think it would be. Oh, and ^N will put your back into funky character mode.
>>(ASCII codes for SI == Shift In, SO == Shift Out)

  Simplest solution I have come across is to just type "echo ^[c" - actually
push the escape key. You likely can't read it, but that should reset the
console.device. I just looked that up in the RKM, but I originally just took
a look at the printer codes in the back of my 2000 manual.

  BTW: First posting from me - I just got my AmigaUUCP with the Usenet stuff.
Very nice. Thank you Dan, William, et al.



--

  :!mcr!:
  Michael Richardson                     Amiga
                                  v--------+
 UUCP: uunet!attcan!lsuc!nrcaer!julie!mcr  | INTERNET mcr@doe.carleton.ca
 Fido: Michael Richardson @ 1:163/109.10<--+ Alter @ 7:483/109.10

kim@uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (01/22/89)

In article <15096@cisunx.UUCP>, ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) writes:
> In article <27596@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> me128-aw@kepler.Berkeley.EDU (me128 student) writes:
> >-> How ( if possible) can I get fast fonts to work with a 11-point font?
> >   If I can't, is there a program out there which can?
> 
>                            The other program that I'm aware of is
> Blitzfonts.  In addition to the freely distributable 8 point version,
> Hayes Haugen wrote versions for 9 points through about 16 points.
> He promised to send you these versions in return for a shareware fee.
> Unfortunately, he then decided to blow off the Amiga community,
> apparently.  Anyone foolish enough to actually send him a shareware fee
> got nothing but a blank check for his generousity.  
> 
> But the 9-16 point versions of Blitzfonts do exist.

Foolish person that I am, I sent in my registration fee ... $10, as I recall.

In return, I got back a disk labled "BlitzFonts 1.1", which included versions
of BlitzFonts for 8-16 point fonts.  The 8-point version was supposedly 
improved over the freely redistributable one, and the 11-point version worked
just fine (I never tried the versions for the other sizes).

I dunno if you can still get a disk from him, but the last known address I
have for Hayes is:

     Mantis Development
     11303 S. Dogwood Ln.
     Edmonds, WA  98020

That was as of 04/18/87.  Might drop him a line ...


BTW, I still use BlitzFonts, as I never could get FastFonts to work with
the fonts I prefer (slightly modified pearl).  That's true for the two or
three versions I got from Microsmith, as well as for the CBM distributed
version.  BlitzFonts has never had any problems.

/kim

-- 
UUCP:  kim@amdahl.amdahl.com
  or:  {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,uunet,oliveb,ames}!amdahl!kim
DDD:   408-746-8462
USPS:  Amdahl Corp.  M/S 249,  1250 E. Arques Av,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
BIX:   kdevaughn     GEnie:   K.DEVAUGHN     CIS:   76535,25

dan@ivucsb.UUCP (Dan Howell) (02/02/89)

In article <15096@cisunx.UUCP> ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) writes:
|But the 9-16 point versions of Blitzfonts do exist.

Isn't there *any* ff-type program which will take 16 point fonts?  I would
like to make a system font for interlace mode which might look better than
any 8 point font (I'd like to find out if the interlace is more or less
annoying than an ugly font).

Thanks.

 
-- Dan Howell  <...!apple!comdesign!ivucsb!dan>  <dan@ivucsb.UUCP>

Sullivan@cup.portal.com (sullivan - segall) (02/05/89)

>|But the 9-16 point versions of Blitzfonts do exist.
>
>Isn't there *any* ff-type program which will take 16 point fonts?  I would
>like to make a system font for interlace mode which might look better than
>any 8 point font (I'd like to find out if the interlace is more or less
>annoying than an ugly font).
>
>Thanks.
>
> 
>-- Dan Howell  <...!apple!comdesign!ivucsb!dan>  <dan@ivucsb.UUCP>

Depending on what you are trying to do, use SetFont.  If you like to use 
Workbench, you will of course still have to get used to distorted icons
and Topaz 8  (or some other 8 point font.) 


                           -Sullivan Segall
_____________________________________________________________

/V\  Sully set the example: to fly without moving.  We shall
 '   learn to soar on wings of thought. And the student will
     surpass the teacher.
To Quote the immortal Socrates: "I drank what?" -Sullivan
_____________________________________________________________

Mail to: ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Sullivan or
         Sullivan@cup.portal.com

GORRIEDE@UREGINA1.BITNET (Dennis Robert Gorrie) (05/07/90)

So, what exactly does FastFonts do to make the Fonts Faster?

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Dennis Gorrie                 'Sudden de-compression Sucks!'           |
|GORRIEDE AT UREGINA1.BITNET                                            |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+