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From: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.text
Subject: Re: bringing xfig upto scratch. idraw issues.
Message-ID: <4866@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
X-Local-Date: 15 Feb 90 15:19:03 PST
Date: 15 Feb 90 23:19:03 GMT
References: <2846@goanna.oz.au>
Sender: usenet@helios.ee.lbl.gov
Reply-To: envbvs@epb2.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
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In article <2846@goanna.oz.au>, isaac@goanna.oz.au (Isaac Balbin) writes:
> I am contemplating giving a programming project to a group
> of 3rd year undergraduate students that would involve bringing
> xfig to a better state. I mean, at least bringing it to a state where
> it has all the features of fig-fs, and handles text (scaling, size etc)
> better than fig-fs. Perhaps they might also bring some features from 
> idraw to this new version of xfig. My motivation is clearly selfish,
> with an X-terminal to land on my desk in the nearish future (Visual
> Technology, are you listening, how is production of your 19" Turbo
> going). Is anyone undertaking such a project or is it in the pipeline?
> I guess they might use the Athena widget set. I don't know. I haven't even 
> looked at the code ...
> By the way, has anyone thought of an idraw to fig conversion program
> or even idraw to eepic or something? How hard would this be?
> Suggestions and comments welcome.		isaac@goanna.cs.rmit.OZ.AU
> 
> PS. All this because I use transfig and eepic for my TeX diagrams and find it
>     most convenient since you can actually preview the diagrams as well with
>     say xdvi or xtex!

Wellll,  I didn't want to say anything until I brought the documentation
up to date, but I have been hacking at xfig and have added the following 
features:

o Area fill for circles, boxes, etc. with 20 different gray shades
  for Postscript output

o 35 different fonts - the 35 fonts normally included with the Laserwriters
  can be used in figures at any point size.  If there is a corresponding
  font in X, then the text is shown in that font on the screen.

o text can be virtually any point size

o left, center and right justification of text

o rounded-corner boxes with any radius of the corners

o different line thicknesses

o lower button panel for quick access to "save", "chdir", etc. functions.

o button to change the line thickness of an existing object 

o button to change the line type of an existing object

o portrait or landscape print mode 

I have NOT supported the sunview code in xfig (for those who didn't know,
xfig can be compiled for X11 or sunview) and have stripped that code out
in some modules.

If there is any interest in this hacked xfig, I can post it to comp.sources.x
I would like to at least update the man entry, though, to show the new
features.

*** I will call it nxfig to distinguish it from the original xfig.
_____________________________________
Brian V. Smith    (bvsmith@lbl.gov)
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
I don't speak for LBL, these non-opinions are all mine.