Startup Font Manager is a System 7.1-ONLY extension designed to give people the ability to enable/disable fonts at startup. It accomplishes this by moving fonts to/from the Fonts folder (inside the System Folder) from/to a (newly created) "•Disabled Fonts" folder inside the "Fonts" folder. Doing this effectively hides fonts from the System, which doesn't install them at startup. Fonts which are hidden from the System this way are not "installed"; that is, they do not show up in Font menus and such.
Here's how we play: at boot, my little animated icon comes up, you see it, gasp in awe and SFM looks to see if you're holding down the Space Bar or the "F" (for "Fonts") key. If you are holding down one of those keys, (and you running at least System 7.1) SFM grabs a list of all font files, font suitcases and PostScript font files and displays them in a dialog for you to examine. All fonts which are currently 'installed' (that is, they are located in the System Folder's "Fonts" folder, where the System will find them soon hereafter and make them available to applications run on your Mac) are highlighted. Fonts which are not installed (that is, they are located in a subfolder of the "Fonts" folder named "•Disabled Fonts", which I create for you, where they aren't found by the System) are un-highlighted. All installed fonts are grouped together and alphabetized; next come the uninstalled. Using the 'standard' selection method where the shift key allows for contiguous selections and the command key allows for non-contiguous selections, you "enable" (highlight) and disable (un-highlight) the fonts listed. Disabling the PostScript font file associated with a bitmapped font which is still enabled is allowed; it's not such a good idea, but it's allowed. When you're done, click OK. If you want to see the "About" screen, click the icon of SFM with a help balloon.
"Why the hail do it?"
I wrote this as a test for myself. I'm one of those nasty geeks who suddenly decides he wants to do 'real programming' and deserves to wreak havoc on the entire planet. I wrote this to learn how to write extensions, use the List Manager and crash fellow Mac users' CPUs. My real intent is to write something somewhat-but-not-completely-unlike a combination of Suitcase and Extensions Manager (I happen to think Extensions Manager is very slick and elegant...no, it's not a fine piece of art like "Wings of Desire" or even "Ren & Stimpy", but it gets the job done very nicely, thank you); I wanted a font 'mover' that didn't involve patching. In other words (for the novices out there), I wanted to install and deinstall fonts without 'patching any traps'; patching traps is the usual cause of INIT conflicts and such problems...(actually, bad programming is the usual culprit). SFM, therefore, only climbs into memory if you hold down one of the activation keys at boot (and only if you're running the right System version); after it has allowed you to re/move fonts, it gets out of memory, never to appear again and never to cause problems (please, god, don't let it cause problems).
"Why the hail release it?"
I know that as of September 1, System 7 has only gone Golden Master (or so I'm told) and you won't be able to use SFM until it's available a few weeks from now (October 19). Nonetheless, the privileged few who have System 7.1 already, this will be useful. For the rest of us, we can wait. No problem, Apple. We're USED to waiting. WE DON'T MIND. ;)
"How the hail did ya' write it?"
Believe it or not, I wrote this under System 7.0.1, then copied it to a friend's Mac (which was running System 7.1), who told me that (double believe it or not) it worked. (Actually, only one call in this extension is System 7.1-explicit...it's the call to "FindFolder" asking for the location of the 'font' folder. Were it not for this call, and the security calls I place around it to restrict people from using it unless they are running System 7.1, this would actually work under System 7.0. Of course, moving fonts in and out of a ":System Folder:Fonts:" would accomplish absolutely nothing...)
"What the hail could you possibly add to make this even more cool?"
Oh, well, thanks for the praise but there's plenty to add. How about:
• Make SFM a Control Panel device. Don't bother writing me requesting this…EVERYONE has requested this…Demigods have written me to ask for this. Small rodent-like forest creatures have written to ask for this. DON'T WRITE ME TO ASK FOR THIS. ;) It's not the #1 item on my personal list but it will be done eventually. ppphhht.
• Font sets. That's another item on the list I'll get to soon.
• The way the list selection works is goofy (at apple.com?). Part of me feels it ought to work like Extensions Manager, where all selections are toggled. In other words, if you click on something, it changes from selected to deselected, or vice versa. As it stands now, the shift and command key allow multiple selections (any application which allows for large, non-contiguous selections uses the same technique as I use here; it's built into the Mac). While this is perfectly appropriate for some types of list selectons, I don't think it works here. I don't really know...for a selection of LOTS of fonts, it would be awfully convenient to have the list work like it does now. For a small selection, having to hold down the Command key while clicking is an added step. What do you think? Additionally, I need to write a custom LDEF so the list display is more fluid, takes less time and has better indication of PostScript files (a SICN would be cool).
• Bitmapped fonts and PostScript fonts should be managed better. Maybe disabling a bitmap font should also move its associated PostScript font(s) to the appropriate place. This might make things kind of slow since I have to dig into the PostScript font file but it shouldn't be too bad...You might think there's no reason to bother moving PostScript fonts out of the Fonts folder (leaving them there is no problem) but the feature mentioned next will require your seeing PostScript fonts.
• Cool feature idea: If I find an alias in the "•Disabled Fonts" folder, I resolve it. That way, I could rename this extension "AppleShove" (or whatever) so it loads after AppleShare. Then, when I resolve any aliases found in the "Fonts" folder, I might resolve a network-based Fonts folder. This would give Systems Administrators (that's me!) the ability to create a network-based fonts folder to/from which people could copy/move their favorite fonts. There's a lot to consider here, but it could be cool...This does bring into light nasty things like, "Should the user's selection of a font located on a remote volume MOVE that font to their disk, thereby making sure no licenses are broken or should it COPY the font? And if it copies the font and the user later deselects that font, should it be deleted (since it came from a remote volume) or moved into the local '•Disabled Fonts' folder?" NOTE: As of SFM 1.1.0, the code for this feature is inside SFM! But I've completely disabled it. WRITE ME WITH YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS FEATURE.
Anyway, take a look or take a second to think about it...if you could write a font mover which didn't risk causing problems (and, to be fair, didn't let you change things once you booted), what would you want from it?
To whom may I give this?
Here's the boring, legal poop: Startup Font Manager is Copyrighted 1992 by Robert Hess. ONLY non-profit or charitable organizations, groups, companies or individuals may redistribute SFM without the expressed written consent of the author with the following exceptions: CompuServe, AppleLink, America Online, GEnie, The Well, CONNECT, SUMEX and its shadows. A charge or fee cannot be applied to the redistribution of SFM by any party EXCEPT by non-profit or charitable organizations, which may charge a small fee to cover media and associated costs. SFM may only be distributed UNMODIFIED and WITH DOCUMENTATION.
Whew...I hate that stuff, too, but we can't let EduCorp keep stepping on developers...
Many thanks to:
Ken Mcleod and Tom Conrad for guidance, moral support and HyperCorrosive™ email.
Keith Rollin for help, enormous patience and just being a damn good guy.
Chris Flick for example code and guidance.
Rick at MacWEEK for giving me one of his PowerBooks so I could program overnight (I'm getting my own soon, thank goodness).
CalTrain for a reasonably comfortable programming environment. "Next stop, Hillsdale. And we'd like to announce Robert finally squashed that nasty memory bug!"
Annie Lennox, Ministry, The Pet Shop Boys and NIN for keeping my spirits up while I dropped into MacsBug with a bus error.
And Thanks to YOU for helping. Thanks for having a sense of humor. Thanks for putting up with very late night programming...(I have a full time job...amazing...)
Robert Hess
MacWEEK
Systems Administrator
301 Howard, 15th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Internet: robert_hess@macweek.ziff.com
AppleLink: MACWEEK
QM-QM: (415) 243-3623
CIS: 72511,333
MCI: RHESS
AOL: RHessJr
ADDITIONS SINCE VERSION 1.0.0:
Version 1.1.0
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PostScript files (aka "downloadable fonts") are now hidden by default. There's an icon of an arrow pointing into a LaserWriter which starts with an "X" through it, indicating PostScript files are NOT being shown. Click on the icon to toggle it; the "X" will disappear and PostScript files will be shown. Basically, this feature is for future growth. Right now, it really doesn't matter if you leave PostScript files in the 'Fonts' folder; the Mac will only use them when necessary. I guess you could move PostScript files out of the 'Fonts' folder (and into the '•Disabled Fonts' folder) if you wished. In the future, however, you will be able to mount remote volumes (such as AppleShare-based 'font server' volumes) and copy fonts onto your Mac. In that case, it would be necessary to move PostScript files aong with their bitmap files, so you'll need to have a way to see what PostScript files are already present in your 'Fonts' folder.
You can now hold down the Space Bar _OR_ the "F" (for "Font") key to call up SFM. Some people complained they already have a bizillion extensions using the Space Bar; since I have been rebooting like mad lately (testing you-know-what), I know how irritating the Space Bar can be ("I want SFM, not Extensions Manager!"), so I added this feature.
Memory is better managed than before. You'll just have to trust me.
If you were getting an AutoDoubler dialog box in the Finder before, I apologize. Thanks to some sloppy disk management on my part, a product I was beta testing modified SFM. Bad Robert, bad.
Notifications now work. If you try to use SFM with anything prior to System 7.1 you will be informed that SFM doesn't work with your Mac (and why not) in a dialog box when you get to the Finder. This uses the Notification Manager, as recommended by Apple. The same method is used for other weird errors (the only other one right now is if you're running System 7.1 but the OS is unable to find your 'Fonts' folder; that's highly unlikely since I make one call to the OS, which will look like mad for the folder, but I put the error handling in just in case).
The sounds are gone. I hate to see Ren go but he was eating up 17K.
What's next? The aliasing feature. Like I mentioned above, the code for it is already there (I've disabled it until I'm comfortable with it). I've been badgered like MAD for a Control Panel version of SFM. That's on hold for now; first I want to get the _functionality_ frozen, then we'll turn SFM into an INIT/cdev combo like Extensions Manager (actually, I might just make it one Control Panel file and make the user responsible for placing SFM in the Extensions folder if they want it to load really early in the boot cycle…leaving it in the Control Panels folder wouldn't do any harm). Another feature people want is "sets"…that's on the list, too.
I'm naming the extension "Startup Font Manager" now instead of " SFM x.x.x". That way, you can always drop it into your System Folder and replace the old version with the new. If you want SFM to load really early in the boot cycle, rename it with spaces in front of the name.
Version 1.1.1
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An innocuous but ugly bug has been fixed. If you saw it you know it. As a result, all fonts (even PostScript files) are displayed in the same face. The next version will implement an SICN next to the PostScript font files.
