blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (05/31/87)
I received my FastFonts V1.01 upgrade last week, here's a mini-review.
First off, the notice that Microsmiths sent me said to allow 4-6 weeks
for the upgrade to arrive and I got it back in 8 days. Nice service! The
other nice point that needs to be mentioned is the upgrade was FREE. I
just had to mail Microsmiths my original disk.
First the bad news: FastFonts does NOT support a wide varity of fonts.
There are six fonts supplied with the program, and only one of those six
fonts can be used to replace Topaz. Even simple fonts like Pearl and
Clean are not accepted by FastFonts. For those that use interlace there
is a new version of FastFonts that uses Topaz 11.
In response to my complaint about the limited number of fonts accepted
by FastFonts, Dave Haynie's SetFont 2.0 is included on the disk.
So if your primary concern is changing the system font, give FastFonts a
miss, and get SetFont instead.
However, there are other reasons to purchase FastFonts. The text
acceleration works nicely, and the problem of text sometimes being
rendered into the wrong window has been fixed.
In addition to ScreenBlanker which DIMS the screen, there is also
ScreenBlanker2 which BLACKS the screen. I prefer the original, but now
you have the choice.
The best part of the package is FunKeys. FunKeys assigns the following
window manipulations to the function keys:
Activate Next
Activate Front
Window Back
Window Forward
Size Window
There are also NewCLI, Help, and Quit FunKeys, as well as two that can
be user defined. The activation key can be selected (Left Amiga, ctrl,
alt, etc) to avoid interference with other programs.
The Activate Next FunKey is worth the price of the entire package. There
are many programs that open a custom screen, but fail to put depth
gadgets on the screen. If you have one these programs running, and click
another screen (except for the Workbench) behind it, you will not be
able to get to that program until you exit the program that has no depth
gadgets. Amiga-N and Amiga-M will allow you to toggle the Workbench
screen, but there is nothing you can do about another custom screen.
The Funkeys "Activate Next" solves this problem. Every time you hit F2
another window or screen is brought to the front. If you have a lot of
windows open, you may have to hit it several times, but eventually the
custom screen that was inaccessable will pop to the front.
I would prefer a FunKey that would cycle through a list of screens,
rather than screens and windows, but that's a minor nit-pick.
Overall, I would recommend FastFonts, but the limited number of fonts
should have been fixed by rewriting FastFonts, not including a public
domain program.
--
Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland
UUCP Address: {ihnp4,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne
Alternate: {ihnp4,seismo}!utah-cs!utah-gr!uplherc!esunix!blgardnekim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (06/01/87)
In article <327@esunix.UUCP>, blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: > > I received my FastFonts V1.01 upgrade last week, here's a mini-review. > > I would prefer a FunKey that would cycle through a list of screens, > rather than screens and windows, but that's a minor nit-pick. The Ctrl-Alt-n function that GRABBiT (Discovery Software) has does just exactly this. It will cycle thru all the screens you have opened in sequence. I don't use GRABBiT's other functions nearly as much as this one, but this one alone was worth the price of the package! BTW, I didn't use FunKeys too much when I got the FastFonts package, but it didn't seem like thare was any "interference" between any of either package's functions. The reason I haven't added FunKeys to my list of normally used, resident software is because it always opens a bloody window when it's invoked! Come on people ... if you're going to be writing this kind of "hot key" software, please provide a command line option, program variation, etc. so that your program can be made to come up silently. Please! Sounds like I should be expecting an upgrade notice on FastFonts. And speaking of upgrades, the new, just-arrived issue of EA's DeluxeNews has notices for upgrades on DeluxeVideo (to DV 1.2), and to the "improved" version of DMCS. The DVideo upgrade is the same deal as the DPaint upgrade was ($30 + $7 and the manual cover or original unprotected disk, for protected/unpro- tected upgrades, respectively). The DMCS upgrade (which I flamed at EA for being "quiet" about recently), is only $7.50 and the LAST page of the manual. Glad to see them informing their customers this way ... I retract my statement about sleazy business practices. They also list 1.2 upgrades for DPrint and InstantMusic. I hear that the new version of Online! is shipping, and if you upgrade, they'll send you a free T-shirt. Jim Goodnow, of Manx, said v3.40b of the compiler should be available RSN at the last BADGE meeting ... he has a C-compiler test suite now. Aegis' Diga! communication package *is* shipping. It's got a ton of features, but is also ~150k big! The VT100 emulation is the best I've seen so far, and it supports XMODEM, YMODEM, (w or w/o CRC), Kermit, Compuserve-B, and their "Doubletalk". Much, much more ... Scott Turner has mentioned that MetaComCo has an upgrade to their assembler here a couple of times ... Lotsa new (and improved) stuff out there to enjoy! /kim -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,seismo,oliveb,cbosgd}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25
page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (06/01/87)
kim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) wrote:
> ... FunKeys ... always opens a bloody window when it's invoked!
The new version brings up the window and then erases it if you invoked
FunKeys from the CLI. Maybe not as silent as you'd like, but you no longer
have to remove the window yourself.
The ScreenBlanker window also comes up and then goes away ... if you use
the original, the window title is Screen Dimmer, not Screen Blanker.
..Bob
--
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}