Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: SetFont (was Re: wp crashing)
Message-ID: <6981@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 25 May 89 15:53:21 GMT
References: <18178@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 26

in article <18178@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>, ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy) says:
> In article <11767@well.UUCP> shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) writes:
>>Is SetFont really buggy -- or lets say, not fully reliable?  I've been

> Well, not really.  I haven't noticed problems with SetFont itself.  
> Eric Kennedy

Looks like it's "Dave comments on his programs" day.  Eric's basically right,
when SetFont comes along and changes the system font, it can mess up a number
of programs.  Some programs don't adjust well to any font other than topaz
8, some will work fine with any 8x8 font but fail with larger fonts (like
WorkBench), some work fine with any fixed font but fail with proportional
fonts (like CON:).  There's nothing SetFont can do about this; a proper program
would check the font it's inheriting from the screen or window, and specify a
known replacement if it can't use the given font, but I don't think Commodore
has ever really given out guidelines on this, as the main system as of 1.3
wasn't really expecting variable fonts at the system level.

SetFont does, however, hack some thing it's really not supposed to touch.  So
it is possible for it to confuse system things, like the WorkBench, that don't
adjust to font changes.

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The 32 Bit Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
              Amiga -- It's not just a job, it's an obsession