fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (Howard Fore) (06/07/91)
Here's the idea I had for a cool System 7 sys ext:
With System 6.0.7i and 7.0, hundreds if not thousands of Macintoshes' fonts
menus will be thrown into disarray with a hodpodge of font formats. In the
the olden days (which I remember with a grimace) there was the ImageWriter and
bitmapped fonts (and we liked it ;-) ). Then came the LaserWriter and laser
fonts. Then laser fonts were divided into Type 1 and Type 3 formats (what about
Type 2?). Then the laser fonts were divided further into one each for Bold,
Italic, Bold Italic, and Roman (Book) faces. Now there is TrueType and Adobe's
latest creation, Multiple Master (is this really any good?). Adobe fixed some
of the problem with their TypeReunion (a truely awesome INIT, oops, system
extension).
What the world needs now (one thing at least) is a system extension that will
modify the font menu in the same manner as TypeReunion, but it will show what
fonts are what kind. This would prevent people from spending a long time waitingfor their printout and then discovering that they didnt' use the right stuff.
So how 'bout it folks? Any takers?
(of course i don't know everything that would be involved in that....i'm not
a programmer.....yet)
P.S. Who's going to be the first to suggest some MacSlang for "system
extension"? sext...syxt...synsion...sysext...sysion...se...???
P.P.S. The way i envision this se working is by the immediate options under
the font menu would be hierarchial menus such as "Type 1", "Type 3",
"Bitmapped", "TrueType", "MultipleMaster", etc. with each of these
hmenus containing the listing for the fonts of that type. i.e., like
TypeReunion.
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Howard Fore fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (128.192.4.49)tj@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Tom Johnson) (06/08/91)
In article <1991Jun7.101930.28539@athena.cs.uga.edu> fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (Howard Fore) writes: >Here's the idea I had for a cool System 7 sys ext: [Pretty good idea deleted] > >P.S. Who's going to be the first to suggest some MacSlang for "system > extension"? sext...syxt...synsion...sysext...sysion...se...??? Ok, I'll try and take a crack at this one....Hmm.....how about "INIT"? -- Tom Johnson "I put this moment.............................here tj@cs.ucla.edu I put this moment......................here I put this moment-- Over here!" (Kate)
francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) (06/08/91)
In article <1991Jun7.101930.28539@athena.cs.uga.edu> fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (Howard Fore) writes: >With System 6.0.7i and 7.0, hundreds if not thousands of Macintoshes' fonts >menus will be thrown into disarray with a hodpodge of font formats. In the TrueType is essentially transparent to apps. The same call that builds the font menu under earlier systems will work with TrueType, or indeed with any sort of Apple-format font ('NFNT' fonts get recognized), and I think we can expect Apple to keep it working if they add a new font format in the future. And there's no need to choose the right font if you've got TT & bitmaps in your system; the system will figure out which one is needed. I'm not sure what the problem with Adobe-format fonts is; I've never really used ATM. >P.P.S. The way i envision this se working is by the immediate options under the font menu would be hierarchial menus such as "Type 1", "Type 3", "Bitmapped", "TrueType", "MultipleMaster", etc. with each of these hmenus containing the listing for the fonts of that type. i.e., like TypeReunion. No, no! This is *evil*! In the first place, users shouldn't have to *care* what format their fonts are in. This is a basic of Mac: if the user can't see it, he shouldn't have to worry about it. For another thing, apps see the Font menu as a single menu; if you start splitting it up, you'll have to patch the menu manager all to hell to fool them into thinking it's still just one. And patches may not be all that hard, but they have a habit of clashing. -- /============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9? | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | --Ultimate Question | \============================================================================/
francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) (06/08/91)
In article <1991Jun7.171145.5755@cs.ucla.edu> tj@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Tom Johnson) writes: >In article <1991Jun7.101930.28539@athena.cs.uga.edu> fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (Howard Fore) writes: >>P.S. Who's going to be the first to suggest some MacSlang for "system >> extension"? sext...syxt...synsion...sysext...sysion...se...??? >Ok, I'll try and take a crack at this one....Hmm.....how about "INIT"? There you go. Everybody calls it an INIT already; why should we change? Yes, I know--the users may get confused. So use the Correct Term in documentation, but don't bother when there's nobody here but us programmers. :-) -- /============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9? | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | --Ultimate Question | \============================================================================/
tisu@quads.uchicago.edu (Seth Tisue) (06/13/91)
In article <FRANCIS.91Jun7150547@daisy.uchicago.edu> francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) writes: >In the first place, users shouldn't have to *care* what format their >fonts are in. This is a basic of Mac: if the user can't see it, he >shouldn't have to worry about it. If you do any kind of non-trivial desktop publishing at all, you have to worry about it. Sure you shouldn't have to, but until everything is TrueType, which may or may not happen, it's a fact of Mac life. -- ---- Seth Tisue USMail: c/o Plaster Cramp Press ---- (tisu@midway.uchicago.edu) P.O. Box 5975 "Please to be restful. It is only a few Chicago IL 60680 crazies who have from the crazy place outbroken." --------------