phil@rice.edu (William LeFebvre) (12/16/88)
Here's another thing I wish they'd fix when revamping stuff for 1.4. I believe this is a problem with Intuition. I wish that menus paid attention to the font's height. I would like to run an interlaced workbench using topaz/11 for a default font, but when I do that the menus look all wrong. It is clear that the code that builds the menu is still assuming that the font only has a height of 8. Is there a way around this, or am I right in assuming that this is a genuine bug/problem? William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University <phil@Rice.edu>
scotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) (12/16/88)
From article <2334@kalliope.rice.edu>, by phil@rice.edu (William LeFebvre): > Here's another thing I wish they'd fix when revamping stuff for 1.4. I > believe this is a problem with Intuition. I wish that menus paid > attention to the font's height. I would like to run an interlaced > workbench using topaz/11 for a default font, but when I do that the menus > look all wrong. It is clear that the code that builds the menu is still > assuming that the font only has a height of 8. > > Is there a way around this, or am I right in assuming that this is a > genuine bug/problem? > > William LeFebvre > Department of Computer Science > Rice University > <phil@Rice.edu> I would like to know also. Unfortunately, it isn't only the menus (though they are among the worst offenders), its also requestors, and windows, not to mention more than 90% of the utilities and other nifty programs out there! Because several other- wise usefull utilities (specifically ASDG's Sysmon program) use the default font and assume that it is 8 pixels high, I fire it off with the default font left at Topaz/8, then switch to Topaz/11 for my CLI (actually WShell) window. But, if you activate the Sysmon window (real easy when using DMouse), the window title goes to Topaz/11! This should be fixed, also. Scott Henry Silicon Graphics <scotth@sgi.com> -- Scott Henry <scotth@harlie.sgi.com> {or, also on the Internet:} <skywalker@cup.portal.com> #include <std_disclaimer.h>
jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) (12/16/88)
In article <2334@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes: >Here's another thing I wish they'd fix when revamping stuff for 1.4. I >believe this is a problem with Intuition. I wish that menus paid >attention to the font's height. I would like to run an interlaced >workbench using topaz/11 for a default font, but when I do that the menus >look all wrong. It is clear that the code that builds the menu is still >assuming that the font only has a height of 8. > >Is there a way around this, or am I right in assuming that this is a >genuine bug/problem? Well, it's not a bug, but it is a problem with the general system design. Intuition doesn't build menus, programs do. They tell intuition how high/wide each entry is, and the tell it what {text|image} to display. For text, they can tell it a font, or (most common) leave it NULL, and it will use the (screen or window)'s font. So they say the menu entry is 8 pixels high, and leave font NULL, which doesn't produce pretty results if the default font isn't 8 high. You CAN make a program work with this: when reving Notepad for 1.3, I put some support for this into the font menus (only), since I was making them work for most any number of fonts (max is 126 now, I think.) A font requester would be better, and we hope to have a standard one for 1.4. The way to make the program work is to look at the size of the font, then calculate the height AND width of the menu items. (Width should be equal for all items in a column). IntuiTextLength is good for width, make sure font is filled in in the IntuiText structure. Also, when doing this, you should think about avoiding running over any of the boundaries of the screen (tends to kill the system with memory corruption). If they won't fit in one column, use two, etc. If the menu hangs over the right edge of the screen, move it left. If the submenu hits the bottom, have it extend upwards as well as down. You get the idea. With relatively small, static menus this is of less importance, especially if you don't go anywhere near the edges (right OR bottom). Usage of fonts other than 8x8 or 8x9 is important, and you should try to be ready for it. Food for thought... -- You've heard of CATS? Well, I'm a member of DOGS: Developers Of Great Software. Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup