and said, "This is good, so let us make it better.^
And they did !
Later,
@GeoRon
(me)
showed up and looked upon what
did, and said, "This is good, I shall make it better.^
. I'm still working on it.
I had a few problems. I could program in neither
BASIC
or Assembly.
So, I said, "If I can't program
@GEOS
, I'll write about it.^
I wrote, I wrote, and I wrote about it.
One of my first files (created with
@geoWrite
), reached a length of about 25K, and I was only into the third chapter!!! I soon realized that it was going to be too long to upload and download within a resonable.
I then decided to divide all seven (or was it eight?) chapters into separate files. This created my next problem, HOW?!?
Luckily, I discovered a way. In fact, I was so proud of myself that I wrote a file on how anyone with
@geoWrite
or higher could do it.
All during this time, I had been playing with a
@GEOS
font editor that I typed out of an
@Abacus
book. The font I was working on was a 9 point font, that could be used in place of the
font.
I changed several of the characters to make them easier to tell apart. I also noticed that there where several characters that I would probably never use, so added new charactes by replacing the unused ones. I called my font
@RonsWriter
(I'm a very humble type of guy.)
Since I had typed my article using
@RonsWriter
, I decided to upload it with the article. I also add a file describing my font. And to go one step further, I then added three "special^ Printer Drivers which improved the printouts of my font.
To make sure everyone found all the files, I used a "chaining/compacting^ utility called
. This program took all my files (after converted them of course) and linked them into a single large file. It also compacted the files, making them smaller. A person could actually download this
'd file fastest than downloading them separately.
There are a few problems with offering an
file instead of uploading the files separately.
First, many users DON'T like
files, because they have to
them. Using the
utility to
them isn't any fun (for them.) To solve the problem I
'd them. In other words I used another program that takes an
file and alters it into a "
esolving
RC.^ This
file can be loaded the same as a
@BASIC
program and
. The
file will then disolve or `write' the individual files (contained within itself), onto a disk.
n itself), onto a disk.
@GeoRon
's FIRST upload was born.
Since uploading the origional
@RonsWriter
, I've been working to improve it. I clean-up several characters, and re-designed a few others. In fact I advanced
@RonsWriter
upto version
@3.1.
However, version
was so different from the origionial, that I had to renamed it. This new font became
@RonsPub
. This meant that I had to find an earlier version to be
@RonsWriter
I found
@RonsWriter 2.2
. It probably isn't as "finished^ as I would like it to be, but I needed to move on to other things.
@RonPub
has all the same characters as
@RonsWriter
, with a few exceptions:
Pressing:
key and {*}
(copyright)
key and
(Registered TM)
key and {@} = `
(leading apostraphe)
Shift
and {2} = " (leading quotations)
} = ^ (closing quotations)
There are also two changes in
@RonsWriter
key plus {*} was now the {
} symbol
key plus {@} was now the {`} apostraphe.
Now, after creating/re-creating these two fonts I was already to upload them right?
Wrong!!
Something about the fonts didn't "feel^ right.
Then I realized what was wrong. I had been so busy adding new point sizes and `tweaking' my fonts that I had forgotten what they were for.
I had wanted a good looking font with a few useful custom chracaters. Its purpose was to be used as a font for ENTERING text, and easy READING without needing to print it with printer.
This was when I started creating my third font. It was to be my main font, it would replace
@RonsWriter
and
@RonsPub
I named my new font
@RonsTEXTer
@RonsTEXTer
, was for writing "text files^. Files, that contained things you didn't plan to print, but instead would read while displayed on the monitor's screen.
@RonsTEXTer
, is was to be totally compatible with files not written in
@RonsTEXTer
. To do this, I would have to make the
@RonsTEXTer
font the same as the
font. And that meant NO custom characters.
I could put the custom characters in a different font, but who needs extra font when
@geoWrite
has an "can only access eight fonts at a time^ limit.
I knew of a better way.
The problem with putting more characters into a font than can fit was solved by
When
developed their
@Megafonts
, they had to overcome a small problem. The
@Megafonts
are quite large in size, averaging around a point size of 50. All
@GEOS
programs, that use fonts, have a "font buffer.^ This buffer is of limited size, if you can't fit the font into the buffer, you can't load the font to use it.
@BASIC
program and
. The
file will then disolve or `write' the individual
@GeoWrite
's font buffer is about 6000 bytes, a 9 point font is about 800 bytes. A 50 point font would take up enough bytes that it couldn't even get near the computer.
The solution?
If you couldn't fit a whole font into memory at once, load only the parts you need.
And that's exactly what they did. Many people brake large fonts into separate font files; maybe all capital letters in one file, lower case in another, and maybe numbers and puncuation in third.
didn't need to go that far.
When
@geoWrite
loads a font into memory, it loads only the POINT SIZE needed. If another point size needs to be "deleted^ from the font buffer to make room for the one being loaded, it is. The fonts stored in the buffer are only needed while you are "typing^ in that font. When
@geoWrite
places a character on screen, it has been "drawn^ or "painted^ there.
The "information^ on how to draw a character isn't needed again until you add or change a character, or make a change to character that affects it. When you do make a change, the needed informtion is either found in the font buffer, or loaded into the buffer for use.
Remembering this "load one point size at a time^ trick,
could place letters A-M in the 48pt, N-Z in 49pt, punction and number in 50pt size all within the same font file.
No one could see the shifts in point size, since only the "ink^ of the characters are seen (not the empty "one pixel^ extending above or below the character
Since I had decided to make
@RonsTEXTEer
only in one point size (9pt.), I could use 10pt to "store^ the all the lesser used characters and add more character later. In fact my font could have twice as many characters!
I planned on designing
@RonsTEXTer
, to be 100% compatible with
's font. However, this would mean NO custom characters could be used. But I WANTED custom characters. Using the 10 point custom characters
@RonsTEXTer
, does not have totally compatiblity. If a person were to use only the 9pt size, they could have
% compatiblity. The
% incomptiblity is due to the fact that I left two custom characters on the "main^ key board.
I found two characters that I used too often to place on the "10pt keyboard^. The first was the "ending quotation mark^ and the second was the "leading apostraphe.^ The characters normally found in their place, were placed on the "10 point keyboard.
@RonsTEXTer 9pt
keyboard has only a few custom keys:
key = { ^ }
key + {@}
1 1
= { ` }
@RonsTEXTer
@10pt
keyboard has the following keys:
c =
C =
t =
t
T =
R =
u =
d =
l =
r =
m =
M =
x =
X =
b =
* =
=
A =
= =
< =
> =
@ =
p =
n =
N =
- =
e =
/ =
: =
; =
Shift : =
Shift ; =
C
: =
C
; =
C
? =
Keys 1-9, are spaces with `key 1' being one pixel wide, and increase up to nine pixels for `key 9'. The shifts of keys 1-9 are underlined versions.
(.txt)