X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,bcba8c7403400943 X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-11-01 01:11:54 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!feed.news.nacamar.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!news.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!not-for-mail From: Markus Gebhard Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art Subject: Re: JavE bug and algorithm for autoconverting to a figlet font Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 10:13:01 +0100 Organization: University of Karlsruhe, Germany Lines: 133 Message-ID: <3BE1121D.92E901D2@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> References: <4tTZOz0OYRROH1yaCZAdAAQYhCOh@4ax.com> <3bd9dd1e$0$757$edfadb0f@dspool01.news.tele.dk> <3BDE793C.2CE9EA56@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> <3BDEF269.C233D5F@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> <3be055cc$0$237$edfadb0f@dspool01.news.tele.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: wn4-jarjar.wn4.uni-karlsruhe.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de 1004605913 7949 172.20.12.141 X-Complaints-To: usenet@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: archiver1.google.com alt.ascii-art:9373 Hi CeeJay, CeeJay wrote: > > Ok, I have written some documentation about the "FIGlet font export > > assistant" in JavE. You will find it here: > > http://www.jave.de/docs/figletexport/figletexport.html > > > > I hope it will clear things up rather than making it worse... > > Any ideas for improvements are welcome. > > It certainly cleared up one big bug. > If you open the Figlet Font Export Assistant (FFEA) .. change your mind , and open it > later the blue adjustment boxes will not show [...] You are right: I know this bug and it will be fixed with the next release. This will be in about two weeks or so, depending on my motivation and how much spare time I will have... > How about a F1 help function that open a help page for every window ? > It's greatly needed .. I have already been working on that and I think it will be working in the next release. But unfortunately it will not work on every OS: There is no standard way for launching a browser from within Java. But I think it should work for MacOS, WinXX, Solaris and _most_ Linux systems. > In any case .. YES the short documentation you just wrote and linked was helpful. > So was the official info you linked too. I have realized that I do not have enough time and motivation for writing documentation for all functions in JavE. So for now I think it could be a compromise solution to do it this way: Whenever someone asks me about a function in JavE I will write documentation for exactly that part and put it online. You have to understand that I do this project in my spare time, I do not make any money by working on it and I want to have fun. Also I want to fix bugs and to make the program easier to use... > The FFEA still have faults .. fx it asumes that all letters are of equal width and that > the spacing is the same. That's only halfway true: It is right that all the characters have to be aligned in a grid with equal width and height of the cells: +-------+-------+-------+ | _ | ___ | _ _ _ | | / \ || o ) || | | || || o | || o \ || V V || ||_n_| ||___/ | \_n_/ | +-------+-------+-------+ o o o But you have to understand that when extracting the characters the FFEA will determine the width of each single character by removing empty columns. > [snipped description of possible autodetecting sizes] I do not think it is possible detecting all those dimensions and especially the alignemnt of the characters and symbols in more than 10 or 20% of all FIGlet fonts. Just have a look at fonts like: 1) .S_SSSs .S_SSSs sSSSSs .SS~SSSSS .SS~SSSSS d%%%%SP S%S SSSS S%S SSSS d%S' S%S S%S S%S S%S S%S S%S SSSS%S S%S SSSS%P S&S S&S SSS%S S&S SSSY S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S S&S sSSs S*S S&S S*S S&S S*b `S%% S*S S*S S*S S*S S*S S% S*S S*S S*S SSSSP SS_sSSS SSS S*S S*S SSY Y~YSSY SP SP Y Y The A would have been detected as q - because it has decent on the right. B would have been detected as p... 2) ..####...#####....####....####...#####....####.. .##..##..##..##..##......##..##..##..##..##..... .######..#####...##.###..######..#####...##.###. .##..##..##..##..##..##..##..##..##..##..##..##. .##..##..#####....####...##..##..#####....####.. ................................................ There are no empty columns or rows and obviously the font does not have decent - or does it? 3) ## ##### ## /#### ###### /## / ### /# / / ## /## / / / ## / ## / / / / ## ## ## / / ## ## ## / / ## ## ##/ / ## ## ## ### /######## ## ## ### / ## # ## ## # ## / ## /#### ## /##/ ### / #### ## / / ######## / ## #/ / #### # # ## ## Now even A and B have decent! And there are lots of other examples... So I will not write auto-detection for the FFEA. I know adjusting those values by hand is annoying - but you have to do it and once you have a little practice it is not so hard to do. > I bet if you told me only the width, height, decent and the order of a number of letters > that I could determine what they were without ever seeing them. What about all those symbol characters like !"$%&/(),.:; etc.? I am sure some parts of your suggestions could be implemented and would work in some situations - but I think it is not worth spending that much time on it. Also it would be very frustrating seeing it fail in most situations... Well, I think I am rather going to fix that bug mentioned on the top of this message right now. Markus -- \-/ http://www.jave.de O_< Get JavE now! \-/ J|a|v|E /| J|a|v|E /-\ Ascii-Art for eyeryone / \ - for free! /-\