| widget_programming [message #15663] |
Wed, 02 June 1999 00:00  |
R.Bauer
Messages: 1424
Registered: November 1998
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Hi,
position keywords are fine if I use always the same platform for my
application.
But unfortunately we have some computers and some platforms where
positional widgets
are shown very bad.
The main reason is the different system font and the different screen
resolutions.
Which fonts are on unix idl and nt idl will give the same results? Is
there a list avaliable?
Did the fontsize append on the screen resolution and how will I get
independent to the screen resolution?
I do understand well thats if I defined 1280 * 1024 and I have on an
other one only 1024 x 768 I got in trouble.
But if I define 200 * 160 both should look simliar. What happens is
thats on the best system (it's always the one where the widget was
builded) all is ok and on an other one all is shifted on top of each
other. Input fields could not be reached.
R.Bauer
|
|
|
|
| Re: widget_programming [message #15706 is a reply to message #15663] |
Fri, 04 June 1999 00:00  |
mgs
Messages: 144
Registered: March 1995
|
Senior Member |
|
|
In article <3757BF62.5494763D@astro.estec.esa.nl>, Michael Werger
<mwerger@astro.estec.esa.nl> wrote:
> Dear all
>
> David and Richard wrote about cross-platform development of GUIs
> and the problems with this
>
> [... discussion simply cut ...]
>
> I simply gave up (was trying on Solaris and Windows95/98) - I
> got them by default pretty similar but never equal...
>
> I was doing some cross-platform development for Tcl/Tk too and
> had similar problems. There I developed simply a routine which
> reads a resource file where you can specify font sizes etc.
> I think this way might be a good way here too...? Even different
> users on the same platform have different preferences for
> colors and font sizes
I've been working sporadically on a way to handle this. I hard-coded
something up a couple years ago called OsInfo that is not very useful.
I've been working on a version that creates sliders, text widgets, etc. in
the background, then stores the sizes in a structure. You can use the
sizes as part of a ButtonSize calculation. Here's an idea, where
mMisc.mOsInfo.mBuffer.button contains the number of pixels that a button
takes up without text in it:
; the widget button group definition
wBGAAC = CW_BGroup2(wBase, asResText, /Frame, /Row, $
ButtonSize=mGeo.XSize / N_Elements(asResText) - $
mMisc.mOsInfo.mBuffer.button, Font=mMisc.labelFont)
The idea was to use the XSize of a pre-existing base in the widget
hierarchy to determine the ButtonSize of a BGroup. At the time, I was
developing on a Mac with an SGI target. It worked, but it's not flexible
enough. The OsInfo code on <http://www.ivsoftware.com/IV_Code.html> has
the old incarnation of OsInfo if someone wants to use it for a starting
point.
--
Mike Schienle Interactive Visuals, Inc.
mgs@ivsoftware.com Remote Sensing and Image Processing
http://www.ivsoftware.com/ Analysis and Application Development
|
|
|
|
| Re: widget_programming [message #15711 is a reply to message #15663] |
Fri, 04 June 1999 00:00 |
rivers
Messages: 228
Registered: March 1991
|
Senior Member |
|
|
In article <MPG.11beddbd77f6ed409897cb@news.frii.com>, davidf@dfanning.com
> (David Fanning) writes:
>
> Perhaps this article will generate some other ideas
> we can use. I'll collect them and post them on my
> web page. My main problem is that I don't have all these
> machines, so when a problem develops I solve it and
> forget to write the solution down. :-(
>
> (I'm also vaguely remembering a Mark Rivers function
> that helped get nice fonts in a machine-independent
> fashion. Mark, are you reading. Haven't heard from
> you in a while.)
I'm still here!
Here is the function I use to get useable and reasonably similar fonts on Motif,
(e.g. Unix and VMS) and Windows NT machines. You use the function as in the
following examples:
font = get_font_name(/helvetica, /large, /bold)
font = get_font_name(/courier, size=3)
Sorry I haven't even written a standard documentation header!
Using this function I am able to write widget applications which look very
similar on Windows and Motif. I have used it a lot on Sun, Digital Unix, VMS,
and Windows NT, less so on SGI, HP and Linux.
************************************************************
function get_font_name, $
helvetica=helvetica, times=times, courier=courier, $
tiny=tiny, small=small, medium=medium, large=large, huge=huge, $
size=size, $
bold=bold, italic=italic, $
dpi75=dpi75, dpi100=dpi100
; Returns the name of the font with the specified characteristics
; This routine should know more about the Mac. Right now it only works well on
; Windows and Motif
if (!version.os_family eq 'Windows') then begin
font = ''
if keyword_set(helvetica) then font = font + 'Helvetica' else $
if keyword_set(times) then font = font + 'Times' else $
if keyword_set(courier) then font = font + 'Courier New' else $
font = font + 'MS San Serif'
if keyword_set(bold) then font = font + '*Bold'
if keyword_set(italic) then font = font + '*Italic'
if keyword_set(tiny) then size=0
if keyword_set(small) then size=1
if keyword_set(medium) then size=2
if keyword_set(large) then size=3
if keyword_set(huge) then size=4
if (n_elements(size) eq 0) then size=2
font_size_strings = ['12', '14', '16', '18', '20']
size = (size > 0) < (n_elements(font_size_strings)-1)
font = font + '*' + font_size_strings(size)
return, font
endif else if (!version.os_family eq 'Mac') then begin
font='Helvetica'
return, font
endif else begin ; Assume Motif
font = '-adobe-'
if keyword_set(helvetica) then font = font + 'helvetica-' else $
if keyword_set(times) then font = font + 'times-' else $
if keyword_set(courier) then font = font + 'courier-' else $
font = font + 'helvetica-'
if keyword_set(bold) then font = $
font + 'bold-' else font = font + 'medium-'
if keyword_set(italic) then font = font + 'o-' else font = font + 'r-'
font = font + 'normal--*-'
if keyword_set(tiny) then size=0
if keyword_set(small) then size=1
if keyword_set(medium) then size=2
if keyword_set(large) then size=3
if keyword_set(huge) then size=4
if (n_elements(size) eq 0) then size=2
font_size_strings = ['80-', '100-', '120-', '140-', '180-']
size = (size > 0) < (n_elements(font_size_strings)-1)
font = font + font_size_strings(size)
if keyword_set(dpi100) then font = font + '100-100-' else $
if keyword_set(dpi75) then font = font + '75-75-' else $
font = font + '*-*-'
font = font + '*-*-iso8859-1'
return, font
endelse
end
____________________________________________________________
Mark Rivers (773) 702-2279 (office)
CARS (773) 702-9951 (secretary)
Univ. of Chicago (773) 702-5454 (FAX)
5640 S. Ellis Ave. (708) 922-0499 (home)
Chicago, IL 60637 rivers@cars.uchicago.edu (e-mail)
or:
Argonne National Laboratory (630) 252-0422 (office)
Building 434A (630) 252-0405 (lab)
9700 South Cass Avenue (630) 252-1713 (beamline)
Argonne, IL 60439 (630) 252-0443 (FAX)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: widget_programming [message #15746 is a reply to message #15663] |
Thu, 10 June 1999 00:00 |
R.Bauer
Messages: 1424
Registered: November 1998
|
Senior Member |
|
|
David Foster wrote:
> R.Bauer wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> position keywords are fine if I use always the same platform for my
>> application.
>> But unfortunately we have some computers and some platforms where
>> positional widgets
>> are shown very bad.
>>
>> The main reason is the different system font and the different screen
>> resolutions.
>>
>> Which fonts are on unix idl and nt idl will give the same results? Is
>> there a list avaliable?
>>
>> Did the fontsize append on the screen resolution and how will I get
>> independent to the screen resolution?
>>
>> I do understand well thats if I defined 1280 * 1024 and I have on an
>> other one only 1024 x 768 I got in trouble.
>> But if I define 200 * 160 both should look simliar. What happens is
>> thats on the best system (it's always the one where the widget was
>> builded) all is ok and on an other one all is shifted on top of each
>> other. Input fields could not be reached.
>>
>> R.Bauer
>
> When I ran into this problem trying to port code from Sun/Solaris to
> SGI I included the following commands in the "idl_startup" file:
>
> ; Choose pseudo-color 8-bit visual
> device, pseudo_color=8
>
> ; Select default backing-store method to be provided by IDL, as SGI
> ; X server does not seem to provide it
> device, retain=2
>
> ; Change size of font so programs fit on-screen (IRIX 4.0 or later)
> ; Reference: sgi.doc document in $IDL_DIR/notes
> WIDGET_CONTROL, $
> DEFAULT_FONT="-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-14-100-*-*-*-*-* "
>
That's a good idea!!!!
Thanks
David
>
> ; Set default plotting font to same hardware font above
> ; (Create a pixmap window to avoid window creation upon
> ; calling DEVICE, FONT= ; then delete window)
> window, xsize=5,ysize=5,/free,/pixmap
> !p.font = 0 ; Use hardware font
> device, FONT="-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-100-*-*-*-*-*"
> wdelete ; Delete window created
>
> I used something very similar, without the RETAIN=2, for Solaris 2.6.
>
> From my experience, the two major issues are (1) default font sizes,
> and (2) screen resolution. I really like the idea of developing
> routines that can choose reasonably sized fonts under multiple
> platforms.
>
> As far as getting things to look similar goes, screen resolution
> can be an important issue as well. If widgets are too big, chances
> are your default font(s) are too big, but if widgets are too small,
> chances are your screen resolution may be higher than you're used to.
>
> In our lab, we have actually forced the resolution of our newer Sun
> Ultra machines to a lower value than their default, because the higher
> resolution was making it too hard for our brain-anatomy people to see
> what they were doing. Once you figure out which damn command controls
> your particular frame-buffer, it's quite easy to do this. As an example,
> on our Sun Ultra1 Creator we use:
>
> /usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1152x900x76 now
>
> in the user's startup file, before starting the window manager,
> and then restore the default resolution later using:
>
> /usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1280x1024x76 now
>
> Dave Foster
> --
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
> David S. Foster Univ. of California, San Diego
> Programmer/Analyst Brain Image Analysis Laboratory
> foster@bial1.ucsd.edu Department of Psychiatry
> (619) 622-5892 8950 Via La Jolla Drive, Suite 2240
> La Jolla, CA 92037
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
| Re: widget_programming [message #15762 is a reply to message #15663] |
Tue, 08 June 1999 00:00 |
David Foster
Messages: 341
Registered: January 1996
|
Senior Member |
|
|
R.Bauer wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> position keywords are fine if I use always the same platform for my
> application.
> But unfortunately we have some computers and some platforms where
> positional widgets
> are shown very bad.
>
> The main reason is the different system font and the different screen
> resolutions.
>
> Which fonts are on unix idl and nt idl will give the same results? Is
> there a list avaliable?
>
> Did the fontsize append on the screen resolution and how will I get
> independent to the screen resolution?
>
> I do understand well thats if I defined 1280 * 1024 and I have on an
> other one only 1024 x 768 I got in trouble.
> But if I define 200 * 160 both should look simliar. What happens is
> thats on the best system (it's always the one where the widget was
> builded) all is ok and on an other one all is shifted on top of each
> other. Input fields could not be reached.
>
> R.Bauer
When I ran into this problem trying to port code from Sun/Solaris to
SGI I included the following commands in the "idl_startup" file:
; Choose pseudo-color 8-bit visual
device, pseudo_color=8
; Select default backing-store method to be provided by IDL, as SGI
; X server does not seem to provide it
device, retain=2
; Change size of font so programs fit on-screen (IRIX 4.0 or later)
; Reference: sgi.doc document in $IDL_DIR/notes
WIDGET_CONTROL, $
DEFAULT_FONT="-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-14-100-*-*-*-*-* "
; Set default plotting font to same hardware font above
; (Create a pixmap window to avoid window creation upon
; calling DEVICE, FONT= ; then delete window)
window, xsize=5,ysize=5,/free,/pixmap
!p.font = 0 ; Use hardware font
device, FONT="-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-100-*-*-*-*-*"
wdelete ; Delete window created
I used something very similar, without the RETAIN=2, for Solaris 2.6.
From my experience, the two major issues are (1) default font sizes,
and (2) screen resolution. I really like the idea of developing
routines that can choose reasonably sized fonts under multiple
platforms.
As far as getting things to look similar goes, screen resolution
can be an important issue as well. If widgets are too big, chances
are your default font(s) are too big, but if widgets are too small,
chances are your screen resolution may be higher than you're used to.
In our lab, we have actually forced the resolution of our newer Sun
Ultra machines to a lower value than their default, because the higher
resolution was making it too hard for our brain-anatomy people to see
what they were doing. Once you figure out which damn command controls
your particular frame-buffer, it's quite easy to do this. As an example,
on our Sun Ultra1 Creator we use:
/usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1152x900x76 now
in the user's startup file, before starting the window manager,
and then restore the default resolution later using:
/usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1280x1024x76 now
Dave Foster
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
David S. Foster Univ. of California, San Diego
Programmer/Analyst Brain Image Analysis Laboratory
foster@bial1.ucsd.edu Department of Psychiatry
(619) 622-5892 8950 Via La Jolla Drive, Suite 2240
La Jolla, CA 92037
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
