| Re: Different Platforms [message #10340 is a reply to message #10333] |
Wed, 19 November 1997 00:00   |
Liam Gumley
Messages: 473
Registered: November 1994
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Neil Winrow wrote:
> I have written a number of widget programs, which are visually correct
> on my PC, however when they are run on the silicon graphics machines the
> layout starts to go terribly wrong. The character sizes are wrong, and
> the labelling carried out using the 'XYOUTS' call is all wrong. The
> whole window sizing falls down. The programs are going to be used on
> PC's, silicon graphics, and MAC's. Could anyone offer me a few pointers
> on how to correct these problems to run the programs on the different
(1) If your development platform is a PC, then make sure that once a day
you test the program on a Unix box, and a Mac. Unless you do this, it is
easy in your program design to go down a path from which there is no
return.
(2) As David Fanning suggested, having the commands
Device, Set_Character_Size = [ 6, 9 ]
Widget_Control, Default_Font = '7x13'
in your IDL startup file will guarantee consistent graphics font and widget
font sizes on all *Unix* platforms. However, these commands are ignored on
PCs. You should try David's STR_SIZE program.
(3) You may wish to look into using *hardware* fonts for graphics. I've
been experimenting with them in Unix, and getting pretty good results. You
can see the list of available hardware fonts in IDL by using the command
Device, Get_Fontnames = Fontnames
which returns a string array of all the font names defined on your system
(Unix or PC or Mac). You can then select a font that looks consistent on
all platforms (say a 14 point Helvetica font), and make it the default
graphics and widget font by the commands
device, font = name ; set graphics font
!p.font = 0 ; use hardware fonts for graphics instead of vector fonts
widget_control, default_font = name ; set the default widget font
The major drawback to using hardware fonts is that they do not rotate
automatically, e.g.
plot, indgen(10), xtitle = 'X AXIS', ytitle = 'Y AXIS'
when using hardware fonts will give you the Y title plotted vertically, but
not rotated. You can get around this by creating the Y axis title in a
pixmap, reading an array of byte data from the pixmap, rotating the array
using ROTATE, and TVing the rotated array next to your Y axis. This takes a
bit of messing around, but the resulting graphics plots look *much* more
professional than the default vector fonts.
(4) When creating widget programs, be very careful about using XSIZE and
YSIZE keywords. I try to use them only for WIDGET_DRAW, WIDGET_LABEL, and
WIDGET_BUTTON sizing.
(5) Rely on the ROW, COLUMN, and alignment keywords when creating widget
bases to position your widgets.
Cheers,
Liam.
PS I've attached a Unix hardware font selection routine below - I'll be
modifying it soon to work on PC and Mac.
PRO SELECT_FONT, HELVETICA = HELVETICA, TIMES = TIMES, $
PALATINO = PALATINO, COURIER = COURIER, BOLD = BOLD, ITALIC = ITALIC, $
SIZE = SIZE, NAME = NAME
;+
; Purpose:
; Select a Unix hardware font for IDL graphics.
;
; Usage:
; SELECT_FONT
;
; Input:
; None required.
;
; Optional Keywords:
; /HELVETICA Select a Helvetica font (default)
; /TIMES Select a Times font
; /PALATINO Select a Palatino font
; /COURIER Select a Courier font
; /BOLD Select a bold font (default is no bold)
; /ITALIC Select and italic font (default is no italics)
; SIZE If set to a named variable, sets the font size
(default=12)
; NAME If set to a named variable, returns the font name
selected
;
; Revised:
; 17-OCT-1997 Liam Gumley, CIMSS/SSEC
; Created
;
; Notes:
; (1) This procedure currently only works on Unix IDL platforms.
; (2) The NAME value returned by SELECT_FONT can be used to set the
; default widget font by the command
WIDGET_CONTROL,DEFAULT_FONT=NAME
;
; Example:
; !P.MULTI=[0,1,2,0,0]
; PLOT,INDGEN(10)
; SELECT_FONT,/BOLD
; PLOT,INDGEN(10)
;-
;- this version is only for Unix at the moment
if !version.os_family ne 'unix' then begin
message, /continue, 'Only works on Unix at the moment'
return
endif
;- check keyword flags
if not keyword_set( helvetica ) then helvetica = 0
if not keyword_set( times ) then times = 0
if not keyword_set( palatino ) then palatino = 0
if not keyword_set( courier ) then courier = 0
if not keyword_set( bold ) then bold = 0
if not keyword_set( italic ) then italic = 0
;- check keyword values
if n_elements( size ) eq 0 then size = 12
;- set keyword return values
name = ''
;- create font search string
case 1 of
helvetica : search = '*helvetica*'
times : search = '*times*'
palatino : search = '*palatino*'
courier : search = '*courier*'
else : search = '*helvetica*'
endcase
if bold then begin
search = search + 'bold-'
endif else begin
search = search + 'medium-'
endelse
if italic then begin
search = search + 'o-normal*'
endif else begin
search = search + 'r-normal*'
endelse
;- open a graphics window
window, /free, /pixmap
;- get list of font names matching search string
device, font = search, get_fontnames = fontnames
;- find a font size that matches
fontstring = '--' + strcompress( long( size > 8 ), /remove_all ) + '-'
index = strpos( fontnames, fontstring )
loc = where( index ne -1, count )
;- use font if it was found, or else set graphics font size
if count ge 1 then begin
name = fontnames( loc(0) )
device, font = name
!p.font = 0
endif else begin
message, /continue, 'Requested font was not found - using graphics font
instead'
endelse
;- close graphics window
wdelete, !d.window
end
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
