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000265_news@newsmaster….columbia.edu _Wed Nov 4 10:51:46 1998.msg
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From: fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Subject: Re: So, how's the GUI version coming?
Date: 4 Nov 1998 15:51:44 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
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In article <364069e9.0@news.ic.net>, Michael Kairys <kairys@mi.sl.com> wrote:
: Frank wrote:
: >You can get a pretty good idea from:
: >
: > http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/kuishots.html
:
: Well, Frank, if you're willing to reply to one more post... (:-)
: The main reason I would like a GUI version is to get control of the
: fonts used in the terminal window. It looks from the screenshots
: like that's not what you have in mind; they make it look like it will
: be the same Console window running in a GUI framework.
:
Not at all. The font you see happens to be Lucida Console, which is
a Unicode Truetype font. Perhaps if we had shown it in black on white
you might have liked it better :-)
: I've never liked the two fonts available to the DOS console and I've
: been hoping GUI Kermit would allowme to use any old font I choose...
:
Don't blame us for that, blame Microsoft. Kermit 95 can't even *see* the
console window or controls. Microsoft and Microsoft alone decides what
can and can not appear in the font menu. The situation is even worse in
Windows 98, where the relatively crisp console fonts of Windows 95 are
replaced by ugly bleeding fonts, and a smaller selection of them at that.
In the GUI, you should be able to tell Kermit to use any fixed-pitch
(monospace) Unicode font that is installed on your PC. Of course, there are
not that many fixed-pitch Unicode fonts in the world, but that's a separate
issue. We are in negotiations with several font makers and there are
numerous technical, licensing, and cost issues that will not make anybody
particularly happy.
When you say you want to use any old font you choose, do you really mean it?
Have you ever tried using a proportional font for terminal emulation? It
isn't pretty. All terminals that Kermit 95 emulates use a fixed-pitch font.
No terminals that we know about use a proportional font, or have the
protocols necessary to coordinate spacing, kerning, hinting, etc, between
host and terminal.
The benefits of the GUI window are not so much that a whole world of new
fonts opens up to you -- it doesn't -- but that we can use a Unicode font
(assuming we can find one that is both adequate and affordable) and therefore
display Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, and other writing systems simultaneously,
and can control the display size and style (regular, bold, slanted,
underlined, etc). So, for example, you will be able to use the stretch
controls on your terminal window and choose whether this changes your
screen dimensions or your font size; host-directed switching between 80
and 132 columns can (if you choose) keep the window the same size but change
the font size. The terminal's underline and double-high/wide attributes
can be shown correctly, etc.
There is a question of whether to allow proportional fonts in the font menu.
If so, what do we do with them? Show each character in its natural size
(which ruins the host's idea of the screen's appearance)? Or force each
character into a fixed-size cell (which might result in truncation of pieces
of large characters, such as certain Arabic forms or CJK ideograms)?
We have been working on the font issue for quite some time, and it's a long
slow process. The most fundamental problem at the moment is the lack of
decent, well-populated Unicode Truetype fonts for Windows, except at high
prices, and the lack of tools to create such fonts. The Lucida Console font
that is distributed with Windows NT lacks even the measly 27 characters that
are needed for Hebrew, and Microsoft steadfastly refuses to add them.
Furthermore, as active members of the Unicode consortium, we are also
acutely aware that Unicode itself lacks many of the characters needed for
proper emulation of VT, 3270, and other popular terminals (e.g. extensible
math symbols, various line and box characters, and special symbols), and are
in the process of submitting a series of proposals to fill the gaps. If you
would like to review them, they are in:
ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/ucsterminal/*
Send any comments directly to me (this week if you want them to have any
effect).
- Frank