[comp.sys.amiga] Things to fix. To: Amiga.

peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/29/87)

Gedgets have some problems.

	1) When you change your default font, gadgets are still rendered in
Topaz. Perhaps you should provide some intuition-blessed method for changing
the font.

	2) The "highlight box" in gadgets is pretty ugly. How about just a
single line?

	3) It's hard to deselect gadgets that use the highlight box without
occasionally getting part of the box left rendered.

Speaking of Topaz:

	You should set things up so it uses a different font in lores. Topaz
looks like junk on a low resolution screen. Have a look at the "gene.font"
that Shanghai uses.

Documentation:

	How do you use superbitmap windows? You provide examples of setting one
up, but never explain how to use them.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
--                 'U`  Have you hugged your wolf today?
-- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.

daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (10/01/87)

in article <833@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) says:
> 
> Gedgets have some problems.

I'm not the expert around here.  But then again, I know something about what
you do to change fonts, and Andy has better things to do at 1 in the morning.
> 
> 	1) When you change your default font, gadgets are still rendered in
> Topaz. Perhaps you should provide some intuition-blessed method for changing
> the font.

The problem here is with the programmer, not the way the new fonts are hooked
into Intuition.  The thing is that, the text that shows up in gadgets is
IntuiText.  Which means that it carries along with the normal ASCII 
represenation the color, offset, and FONT ATTRIBUTE to be used for rendering.
If you statically declare your gadgets or their font, that's what you'll get.
If you poll the WORKBENCH screen for the current font in use and scale your
gadget accordingly, everything would work out the way you'd like it.  It 
would be nice to have a standard Intuition call that would do this for you,
but it's a pretty simple function to write in any case.
> 
> -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
> --                 'U`  Have you hugged your wolf today?
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
               No, but I did hug my Wolf Hound
-- 
Dave Haynie     Commodore-Amiga    Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh
"The A2000 Guy"                    PLINK : D-DAVE H             BIX   : hazy
     "God, I wish I was sailing again"	-Jimmy Buffett

cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (10/01/87)

In article <833@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Gedgets have some problems.
>
>	1) When you change your default font, gadgets are still rendered in
>Topaz. Perhaps you should provide some intuition-blessed method for changing
>the font.
>
>	2) The "highlight box" in gadgets is pretty ugly. How about just a
>single line?
>
>	3) It's hard to deselect gadgets that use the highlight box without
>occasionally getting part of the box left rendered.

These are all due to how gadgets with Intuitext are rendered. And it is
a problem but there are ways around it. One would think a simple boolean
gadget would consist of an Intuitext pointer and a pointer to a Border
structure. Unfortunately, Intuition can't figure out how to display these
for both highlighed (GADHCOMP) and non-highlighted situations. What you
can do (and this works rather well) is to take your intuitext structure
and border structure, and render them in to a little gadget sized bitmap.
Then take the bitmap and make it into an Image structure and use that
in your gadget. 

As for using Topaz, I have an application I wrote that puts up several
boolean text oriented gadgets. These are created using the method described
above and work as expected, however I went to great pains to pick up the
window's default font as the font for my 'buttons'. What this involved was
actually repositioning the gadgets in my window and requester depending
on how tall and or wide the letters were. (I abort if all the gadgets wont
fit on the screen). This can be a lot of work in the window setup and
not everyone is willing to put in the extra effort. Too many programs
look horrible when you put them in the 60 character font mode.

--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.

jimm@mitsumi.UUCP (10/02/87)

In article <2435@cbmvax.UUCP> daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes:
>in article <833@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) says:
>> Gedgets have some problems.
>I'm not the expert around here.  But then again, I know something about what
>you do to change fonts, and Andy has better things to do at 1 in the morning.
>> 	1) When you change your default font, gadgets are still rendered in
>> Topaz. Perhaps you should provide some intuition-blessed method for changing
>> the font.
>The problem here is with the programmer, not the way the new fonts are hooked
>into Intuition.  The thing is that, the text that shows up in gadgets is
>IntuiText. 
>> -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
>Dave Haynie     Commodore-Amiga    Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh

I might be able to shed some confusion on the subject ...

Dave is correct, but Peter is probably talking about string gadget
text, which is a real (big) problem.  It isn't even really clear
where they inherit their fonts from.  I got word from a developer
I trust (although this time it was hard) that the font that was
inherited by the string gadget *in a requestor* comes, in part, from
the font found in the RastPort for the Requester's Window's Screen's
MenuBar Layer!!!

So, it sure is broke.  Wonder what would happen if we/you fixed it?
It's damn near time for NewStringGadgets, but the last time I started
thinking seriously about that, I experienced exponential growth of
ideas, until I saw GOD (inside joke) and my brain hurt.  So I quit.

	jimm

-- 
	Jim Mackraz
	Mitsumi Technology, Inc.		408/980-5422
	{amiga,pyramid}!mitsumi!jimm

ajk@goanna.oz (Alan Kent) (10/09/87)

> Dave is correct, but Peter is probably talking about string gadget
> text, which is a real (big) problem. ...
>  ...
> So, it sure is broke.  Wonder what would happen if we/you fixed it?
> It's damn near time for NewStringGadgets, but ...

If anyone is thinking of trying to do new string gadgets, please PLEASE
let them be able to use a proportional font. Mind you, this is certainly
not easy - just what the cursor would look like is a problem.

Oh, and while I am posting, does anyone know if I put gadgets in a
superbitmap window and scroll the window, does it automatically move
the gadgets around too? Not just the image of the gadget but the logical
coordinates of mouse clicks etc. It sure would make large forms easier
to implement (I am working on a database project and would like to port
the code to the amiga - if it will fit). I would try it out myself, but
the internal disk drive in my Amiga died and so I am currently waiting
for it to be repaired.

Alan Kent     (RMIT, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA)

(hope these are still right ...)
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