isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) (06/22/89)
Quick question, probably not so quick answer: How does one have a Font menu show the fonts in their own typeface? Claris' MacWrite II does it without any noticable delay. Suitcase II does it, but takes quite a long time to build it. Any suggestions? Ken Ken Hancock '90 | BITNET/UUCP/ Personal Computing Ctr Consultant | INTERNET: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu -----------------------------------+---------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER? I don't get paid enough to worry about disclaimers.
cep@apple.com (Christopher Pettus) (06/23/89)
In article <14032@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) writes: > Quick question, probably not so quick answer: > How does one have a Font menu show the fonts in their > own typeface? Claris' MacWrite II does it without > any noticable delay. Suitcase II does it, but > takes quite a long time to build it. The basic algorithm is to write a replacement MDEF which "knows" that the names of the items in it are font names. The MDEF then goes through drawing the font name in the font to which the name corresponds. The problem is that this is very, very slow, since the font manager has to suck in and handle each individual font; in a system with a large number of fonts, this can take forever. Therefore, it makes sense to build a bitmap which contains the screen image for the menu, and just blit that onto the screen when it's time to draw. I assume that's what MacWrite II does. -- Christopher Pettus | "Ganesha Said: 'Done! The very Network Systems Development | day I was born I made my first Apple Computer, Inc. | mistake, and by that path have cep@apple.com {nsc, sun}!apple!cep | I sought wisdom ever since.'" AppleLink: PETTUS.C | - The Mahabharata (408) 974-0004 | I: A Mine of Jewels and Gems
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (06/23/89)
In article <14032@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) writes: > Quick question, probably not so quick answer: > How does one have a Font menu show the fonts in their > own typeface? Claris' MacWrite II does it without > any noticable delay. Suitcase II does it, but > takes quite a long time to build it. In article <2452@internal.Apple.COM> cep@apple.com (Christopher Pettus) writes: >The problem is that this is very, very slow, since the font manager has to >suck in and handle each individual font; in a system with a large number >of fonts, this can take forever. Therefore, it makes sense to build a >bitmap which contains the screen image for the menu, and just blit that >onto the screen when it's time to draw. I assume that's what MacWrite II >does. It's not so long since this was discussed here. Claris software actually builds the font menu image once and sticks it into a System Folder file. When the software runs again, it just checks the list of fonts, and if it hasn't changed (which must be about 99% of the time) it uses the stored image; otherwise, it makes a new one and stores that. Fortunately, it's nearly trivial to write a bitmap MDEF. Even I have been able to do it.... Nor should it be very hard to construct the image, though I haven't done that. Still, drawing into offscreen bitmaps is pretty easy if you just follow the Tech Note (that, I have done). And making the file in the System Folder and storing the bitmap is a resource is trivial. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com Postal: 424 Tehama, SF CA 94103; Phone: (415) 495-2934 A good flame strengthens its points; it does not stand in lieu of them.