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1993-10-15
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FONT MANAGER VERSION 2.55
© Andrew Lindesay September 1993, October 1993
____________________________________________________________
-- CONTACT -------------------------------------------------
If you need to contact me, please write to:
Andrew Lindesay
PO Box 28 548
Auckland
NEW ZEALAND
or phone:
(64-9-) 528 8776
I'm afraid I don't have one of those niffty network
addresses.
>> ** NOTE ** << That if anybody feels they might like to
write me a filing system to eradicate the problem listed
at the end of "KNOWN PROBLEMS" I would very much appreciate
it. The writer will be fully credited under the next
version. :-)
------------------------------------------------------------
-- IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ ---------------------------------
This application, "!FontMGR version 2.5" may be copied on the
condition that the following conditions are met. If you
dissagree with *ANY* of these conditions do not keep any copies
of this software.
• NO prophet is to be made from the distribution of this
software in any way. Public Domain libraries may charge
a small fee for the disc this software is supplied on.
Any publications/software writers wanting to supply this
software with a supplied disc should write to me and ask.
• NO files supplied with the application may be edited in
any way at all, in any way except by using the '!FontMGR'
application. This means that any distributed copies
must be complete and hence unedited.
• I, Andrew Lindesay as the author of this software take
no responsibility for any problems/loss of data/software
that rises through the use or misuse of this application.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------
Trying to find a font in a list of around 100 is an extrealy
painful, slow and boring task. You sit there asking
yourself, "Why do I have so many fonts? do I need them?"
The answer is YES, of course you do, there might come a
time when that bizzare flattened version of 'Trinity' might
become useful! So I wrote this application, which allows
you to group fonts into manageable lists, and hence turn
these lists on or off. This means if a group is turned on,
it's fonts will appear in an application's font list, and
if it's off it won't. Then whilst I was testing it, I made
an interesting discovery - if you change the avlaible
fonts whilst certain applications are polling the wimp,
they can detect this change and makes the necessary changes
to their font list/s - and to make things better, most
applications seem to do it. :-) how nice.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- COPYING THIS SOFTWARE -----------------------------------
This software relies upon the fact that is has one list
(see later for description) to work from. I have called
this 'Placebo' in the distribution copy, and I would prefer
you to do the same. Try to keep a copy of the software on
a disc to give to other people, then you won't have to go
through the pain of making new copies manually.
THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT I MAY RELEASE A PIECE OF
SOFTWARE IN LATE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1993 THAT DOES THIS
COPYING PROCESS FOR YOU.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- GENERAL LAYOUT ------------------------------------------
The applications opens up into a window, with two scroll
areas in it. The one on the right is called the
'fonts area', the one on the left is called the
'lists area'. Think of !FontMgr as a filing cabinet.
The items in the 'lists area' are like files, and the items
in the 'fonts area' are like the pieces of paper in the
files. The items in the 'lists area' we will call 'lists',
this may come as a shock, but yes, the lists are in the
lists area. The items in the 'fonts area' are called
'fonts'. Any lists that are active are coloured, and any
dormant fonts are coloured grey. The lists is quite
simply a collection of fonts. The CSL
(Current Selected List) (The contents of which are
displayed in the 'fonts area') has a black background to it.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- USING THE APPLICATION -----------------------------------
Before you begin I suggest you make a copy of you fonts onto
floppy discs, or another area of your mass-storeage media.
This is to allow you to recover fonts should anything go
wrong. These istructions assume you are familiar with
RiSCOS, using a keyboard and mouse.
To see what fonts are stored in each list click [select]
on the list in question. The list you clicked on will gain
a black background. We call this the CSL (Current Selected
List).
To toggle a font between active/passive, click [adjust] on
it. Then to force any changes to take effect to the
avaliable fonts, use the menu option [menu.effect set] and
changes will take effect.
To move a font from one list to another make the source
list the CSL, and [drag] with [select] the font to the list
you want as the destination.
To delete a list, or font, click [menu] on the desired
item, and choose the menu option [menu.delete '<item name>']
*USE THIS WITH CAUTION!*
To make a new list, use the option [menu.new list ->].
Type the name, and press [return].
To add a font to a list, drag the font directory from
disc to the 'font area'. Or of course you can drag a
'!Fonts' directory and the whole thing will be copied
into the CSL.
To make any changes to lists take effect use the menu
option [menu.effect set].
To quit, use [menu.quit], and to make any changes
take effect before quitting, use [menu.quit set].
To make a setup a default, use the option [menu.default],
and to save the status of the !FontMgr, as to recall it
later, use the menu [menu.save ->]. This is useful when
you type a document, and the fonts you used may be in a
dormant list. Just save the !FontMgr file alongside the
document.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- MENU [menu.configure.<item>] ----------------------------
There are three configuration options to have either on or
off.
[all active] makes *ALL* the lists active, and making the
list's name appear before the font's name in an
application's font menu.
[immediate] is short for 'Take Immediate Effect', so for
instance if a list called 'Decorative' is made active having
been passive, the effect will instantly be reflected
in <Font$Path>.
[save quit] this means that quitting (via the close window
icon) saves the current stus of the font manager as the
default.
[Ex paths] was a programming experiment, that sadly didn't
really quite work. :-( Sniff Sniff. You can try it, it just
uses more paths than <Font$Path> to store all the 'little'
paths that allow you to have so many fonts.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- INSTALLATION & ADDING FONTS -----------------------------
The application is supposed to *REPLACE* the application
!Fonts. To start with I reccomend you drop !FontMGR onto
your drive, and then create a new list. Drop either
individual fonts or an entire !Fonts directory onto the
'fonts area' to install into the CSL.
This is the means by which you add fonts at any time.
Remember you must not have !FontMGR *AND* !Fonts seen by
the filer at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- KNOWN PROBLEMS ------------------------------------------
A version of this software was released earlier in the year.
This version was written in BASIC and unfortunately had a
number of problems, these have been addressed, and so I can
definitely reccomend you update your !FontMGR directory if
you had one.
Killing fonts whilst they are in use is a BiG mistake. It
causes some fairly servere problems. You ought to ensure
you have all fonts you are using constantly 'on-call'.
Under RiSCOS 3.10 (3.00?) the system variable <Font$Path>
can be unlimited in size, unfortunatly the font manager
(module) or certain other applications don't like this, and
so they make their disapproval known in the form of an
error box. :-( I believe the only way to overcome this
problem is to create a new font filing system, possibly
an image filing system. This way <Font$Path> only need
contain referances to resource fonts *and* the path
FontFS:$.Fonts.
------------------------------------------------------------
-- GREETINGS -----------------------------------------------
Truck loads of greetings must go to:
Matt, Luke, David (2x), Jeremy, Andrew, Mark R., James,
Séan, Janet, Robyn, Heather, Bev, Mike, John, Justin,
Andy R. and all Arc Users, Jacob, Gordo, Peter, Elizabeth.
A big thanks go to:
Matt, Luke, John, Jason W & Mustapha.
------------------------------------------------------------