[REBOL] request-font
From: carl::cybercraft::co::nz at: 18-Jan-2003 15:18
Hi List,
The font requester and related scripts that Gregg Irwin and I have
been slowly working on have reached beta stage and have been added to
the reboltech library.
The idea is that you have two scripts:
One that's specifically for your OS and which creates a text-file of
the font-names on your system. This only needs to be run once.
(Though running it again would be necessary to keep the text-file
up-to-date when the fonts on your system are changed.)
And another that creates the request-font function and loads the
font-names data. (Having this script launched from your user.r is the
obvious way to run it.)
The above would then make the request-font function available to all
the View scripts you ran.
Well, that's the short version anyway. This is the longer one...
To test this, you'll need to get the two scripts (see below) - the
request-font.r script and the get-fonts-[OS-type].r script that
matches your OS. (Only available for Windows and Amiga so far - it's
your job, List, should you choose to accept it, to write the scripts
for the other OSs View supports;)
These two scripts should be downloaded and placed in the same
directory, (I'd suggest making one called fonts or similar in your
View home directory), as request-font.r needs to find the text-file
(called fonts-data.txt) that the get-fonts[OS-type].r script creates.
(Now read the scripts' headers, just in case I'm forgetting something
here...)
After doing the above, first run the get-fonts[OS-type].r script.
This saves in the fonts-data.txt file a list of objects containing
font data. (Just the fonts' names at the moment, but they're stored
in objects in case other data needs to be added in the future.) Note
that as these scripts are seeking information about the fonts on your
system you'll probably get requests to access files outside your View
directory. Say yes to this if you trust these scripts...
If all goes well you can then run request-font.r. Do this from the
View console as the script creates the request-font function which
you'll then be able to test.
And this is where the scripts are...
http://www.reboltech.com/library/scripts/request-font.r
http://www.reboltech.com/library/scripts/get-fonts-windows.r
http://www.reboltech.com/library/scripts/get-fonts-amiga.r
Gregg wrote the get-fonts-windows.r script and I the other two.
Thanks must also go to Phil Bevan for some useful bug-spotting. Plus
this is the post that got this under way...
http://www.escribe.com/internet/rebol/m25079.html
(a very long time ago, Gregg;)
Now some questions:
I make no great claims for the code or interface in font-request, but
I'd like to know if I've chosen a good set of refinements for it and
if the defaults are sensible ones. Getting those right from the
start will make writing alternatives less of a hassle. This is what
I decided on...
>> ? request-font
USAGE:
REQUEST-FONT /title title-line /name font-name /style font-style
/size font-size /color font-color /font font-obj /text string
/effects /keep /multi
DESCRIPTION:
Requests a font-name and optional settings. Returns a
font-object. If more than one font is selected the objects
name will contain a block of names. With /style, /size and
/color, 'keep may be given to keep the previous settings. This
allows you to place the style, size and color fields in the
requester without forcing them to have a specific value.
REQUEST-FONT is a function value.
REFINEMENTS:
/title -- Change heading on request.
title-line -- Title line of request. (Type: string)
/name
font-name -- Font name. Default is font-sans-serif. (Type:
string block)
/style
font-style -- (Type: word block none)
/size
font-size -- (Type: integer none)
/color
font-color -- (Type: tuple word)
/font
font-obj -- Supply a font object. (Type: object)
/text
string -- Supply example text. (Type: string)
/effects -- Allow editing of offset, space, align, valign, shadow
and colors.
/keep -- Keep previous settings and results.
/multi -- Allow more than one font name to be selected.
I thought about having an update button in the requester, (that'd run
get-fonts[OS-type].r), but decided against it in the end, though I'm
still in two minds whether it should be in or not.
We've also thought about having an installer for this too. A good
idea or not, in that it'd mean request-font.r would have to be
included with each OS-specific script, making updating it a bit of a
pain.
And that's it for now. (Be much easier if RT would just add a
font-requester to View of course, but they haven't yet, so...:)
--
Carl Read
