From: boberg@lysator.liu.se (Stefan Boberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Font-size independence GadTools package
Date: 6 Sep 92 12:44:17 GMT
Organization: Lysator Academic Computer Society, Linkoping University, Sweden

willw@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (William Waring) writes:

>In article <1578@lysator.liu.se> boberg@lysator.liu.se (Stefan Boberg) writes:
>>willw@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (William Waring) writes:
>>> GadToolsBox works with prop-fonts..
>>
>>  Does it really work with proportional fonts? I don't think so... At least
>>it didn't when I tried it. The real problem is that it does not have any
>>means of localizing programs easily. With localized programs you must have
>>a very flexible system in order to allow for greatly varying string lengths.

>Yeah it does work with proprotional fonts. I can use Helvetica 13 point font
>in X-Comm's windows and it turns out very nicely. 

  It may work OK with some proportional fonts, but since GadToolsBox simply
scales all coordinates by a factor dependant on the font HEIGHT windows get
very ugly (lots of empty space) when using Helvetica 18 for example 
(as I do) where the characters are high and thin.

> Yes I agree. Localisation is a REAL pain. Look at 'Term's english catalog 
> - 150K of strings that you have to manage. Real bummer if you ask me.

  Actually, it's quite easy to manage the strings themselves. The hard part
is to build localized GUI's. Localizing LhA took me four hours. I won't
localize LhI or LhBackup until I get/make a flexible system for window &
gadget layout however - there's no way I'll code everything by hand.

>>  <... BOOPSI et al ...>

> Yeah well if commodore bought it upon themselves to explain what all those 
> lovely intuition.library calls actually did, We'd make more use of it. 
> I have yet to figure out what it's all about. :-).. 

   Yes, even though the new RKMs are much better than the previous ones, 
there are a few areas that are a bit confusing. Especially the BOOPSI
section should have been expanded, IMO. That is the most complex part
of Intuition and still the documentation is VERY terse. More examples
on grouping (not that the current RKMs has got any...) etc. would have 
been very nice indeed.

> BTW I'm hanging on LhI? howz V2.00 going? Sounds absolutly mind-boggling 
> (Kick those MS-DOS users eh?). Is LhI going to be a full blown 2.0 style 
> interface with all those pretty guages and stuff? Would be very nice. 

  It's V37+ only. Everything's font-sensitive and it's got `pretty gauges
and stuff', as you put it, all over the place :-) I don't settle for 
anything less than perfect. Don't hold your breath though, it won't be 
released in a month or two (still only at alpha stage).

  Regards,
          Stefan
--
Stefan Boberg - AP & EE student at Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden
Author of LhA, ArjA and LhArcA. Co-author of Alien Breed, Project X, Full
Contact and Miami Chase.
    EMail: boberg@lysator.liu.se, lha@augs.se       FidoNet: 2:204/404.7
--
Stefan Boberg - AP & EE student at Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden
 Author of LhA, ArjA and LhArcA. Co-author of Alien Breed, Project X, Full
  Contact and Miami Chase.
    EMail: boberg@lysator.liu.se, lha@augs.se       FidoNet: 2:204/404