Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/discs/pipeline/7_05/Screens/PL9402

Text File | 1993-12-21 | 18.5 KB | 404 lines

%OP%VS4.13 (28-Apr-92), Gerald L Fitton, R4000 5966 9904 9938
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%C%PipeLine - February 1993 - Copyright ABACUS TRAINING
%C%by Gerald L Fitton
Keywords:
PipeLine Fitton

This month I want to devote the major part of my column to a subject
which I think will interest my many readers who do not have PipeDream
or Fireworkz.  It explains how to set up your 'FontMax' values in a way
which is suitable for Risc OS printing from either PipeDream and
Fireworkz (or many other packages) - but first a few short paragraphs
arising from recent correspondence.

Letters from overseas

One thing I've noticed over the last few months is an increase in the
number of letters I'm getting from outside the UK.  It would seem that
both Acorn and Colton Software have achieved a great deal of success in
selling their wares to the overseas market.  I trust that this is
reflected in new overseas subscribers to Archive and readers of this
column.

Even more users

I have traced another surprising increase in my correspondence to sales
of another Archimedes magazine, Risc User.  If you recently placed a
subscription with Risc User then you will have received PipeDream 3 as
free software!  Although these free copies of PipeDream 3 have led to a
small increase in my correspondence, a far greater increase has arisen
because of an offer from Colton Software.  You can trade in PipeDream 3
(and many other packages, not necessarily Colton Software products -
ask for a quote) for either PipeDream 4 or one of the Fireworkz
packages!  I've been told that some copies of the Risc User PipeDream 3
were traded in unopened!

Year planner

Philip Mott has sent me a set of three of year planners for 1994 which
can be loaded into Wordz.  One is suitable for A4 and another for a
filofax and the third is large enough to be stuck on a wall.  The files
are on the Archive monthly disc.

Upgrades

The last version of PipeDream 3 was version 3.14 and I think I'm pretty
safe in saying that there will be no more upgrades.  The latest version
of PipeDream 4 is 4.13 and it is now clear that this will not be the
last!  Please, please don't send your suggestions for PipeDream
improvements to me.  Send them directly to Mark Colton.  Fireworkz is
now at version 1.07.  To obtain a free upgrade of your old PipeDream 3,
PipeDream 4, Wordz, Resultz and Fireworkz send both your program and
examples discs direct to Colton Software.

The components of the Fireworkz suite (currently three packages, Wordz,
Resultz and FIreworkz) are always upgraded simultaneously.  When
Fireworkz becomes version 1.08 (soon?) then Wordz and Resultz will also
be upgraded to V 1.08 at the same time.

Loading Fireworkz files

On the Archive monthly disc (this month and previously) you will find
some files having a Fireworkz file type.  Some of you who possess only
Wordz or Resultz are experiencing problems trying to load files which
have a Fireworkz filetype.  One reason is that you are double clicking
on the Fireworkz file - nothing happens.  Fireworkz files will load
into Wordz and Resultz provided that your version is 1.04 or later -
but not by double clicking.  First load Wordz (or Resultz) onto the
icon bar by double clicking on the package.  Then drag the Fireworkz
file to the installed icon and choose a suitable template from the menu
which pops up.

If your version is 1.03 or earlier then you won't be able to read the
Fireworkz files.  The solution?  Upgrade to version 1.07 (or it might
be 1.08).

If you load Fireworkz files containing formulae into Wordz then the
formulae will be evaluated (snapshotted) and you will not be able to
see the effect of changing values on the spreadsheet (sometimes called
the "What if" process).  Fireworkz files will load into Resultz and
will generally 'work' as they would in Fireworkz.  What you will not be
able to do in Resultz is to change any of the tab settings or add new
tabs.

Friday 13th

Steve Drain has yet a further PipeDream answer to the Friday 13th
problem.  I have included it on the monthly disc.  Initially Steve's
solution was a spreadsheet which, even in compressed form, would have
consumed a large proportion of the disc so I vetoed it and told Steve
why.  Not to be outdone Steve came up with an interesting solution
which doesn't rely on compression.  He sent me a file consisting of
only seven lines (and three columns) which runs to 673 bytes!  Of
course the 673 byte file wouldn't do the job on its own but Steve
included a PDCmdFil of 136 bytes which 'expands' the 673 byte file to
the size of the 'original' which I'd vetoed!  The method he uses is to
replicate the formula in A2 down through about 4800 rows using:

\Bre|i "A2" |i "A3A4800" |m

I was impressed!  If you have an application of PipeDream or Fireworkz
which uses a large unwieldy disc file then take a tip from Steve and
you might become famous by being mentioned in this column!

A Control Key Problem

Roger M King has written to say:

"Wordz has a number of control key shortcuts which can speed up the
editing and manipulation of text.  One combination of such keys which
can cause problems to new users of Wordz, and is possibly used in
Resultz, is the use of the shortcut <Shift Ctrl X>.  This key
combination brings up on screen the icon allowing boxes to be created
around marked areas of the document.  If you have marked an area of
text and intend to call up the box routine with the above key shortcut
and tap <Ctrl X> by mistake, then the marked area on screen will
vanish!  Actually, this marked area has been cut to the clipboard, and
can easily be repasted into the document again with <Ctrl V>, or by the
use of the paste icon on the tool bar.  Some new users of Wordz that I
have met recently have experienced this problem and thought that they
had lost the marked area of text for good, as experienced with the
<Delete> key.  I personally would like to see the box routine chosen
with a different key combination, perhaps <Shift Ctrl B>.  Failing to
press the <Shift> key with this combination, would only result in the
highlighted area being made bold, which is easily restored to normal
text by pressing the same key combination once more."

Resultz files not for printing

My thanks to Colton Software who, via Rex Palmer, provide the following
hint.  You might want to get rid of the page breaks in a Fireworkz
(Wordz or Resultz) document.  For example you might have a large
spreadsheet or database that you never want to print in total but from
which you want to extract data.  The solution is to use the pop up
menus and select Page - Paper - None.  You will be presented with a
spreadsheet with no vertical (and no horizontal) page breaks - some
will say "Just like PipeDream!"

Printing selected columns

In PipeDream, if you want to print selected columns then one way is to
mark a block and print the marked block.  If you want to print columns
A and D but not B,C,E and F then one way of achieving this is to reduce
the width of the unwanted columns to zero using <Ctrl W>.  They will
disappear from the screen and won't be printed.  You can restore the
widths afterwards with a second application of <Ctrl W>.  If you're
clever, you can arrange for a PDCmdFil to reduce the widths, print the
selected columns and then restore the widths.  Let me know if you want
more details.

Optimising your font manager

In response to many requests I shall explain how I set up my 'FontMax'
values in a way which is suitable for Risc OS printing and I'll explain
why I do so.  Before I start I must express my indebtedness to
Dr S Antczak for his contribution to this subject.

What do you want?

Dr Antczak and I have different requirements.  He is a 'normal' user
(if such a thing exists) who wants the clearest display which is
consistent with a fast screen update.  He is interested in the printed
output more than the screen display.  On the other hand, I am prepared
to put up with a slower screen refresh rate because I need clear
screenshots.  I use 'anti-aliasing' and 'sub pixel anti-aliasing' to
improve the screen display for my screenshots.

!Configure or *status

Tap the <F12> key to produce a star at the bottom of the screen, follow
that by typing the word Status finally tap <Return>. This will display
your CMOS RAM settings - part of which is something like:

 FontSize   32k

 FontMax1   20 points
 FontMax2   72 points
 FontMax3   72 points
 FontMax4   12 points
 FontMax5   12 points
 FontMax    512k

The above values are those which I use; your values may well be less.

If you have RISC OS 2 then you will have to use *Configure to change
your settings but, if you have RISC OS 3 then I suggest that you use
the procedure I set out below.

Apps to Fonts

If you have RISC OS 3 then you will find an icon called Apps on the
left hand side of the icon bar.  Click on this (one click) and a
directory called Resources:$.Apps will open.  One of the applications
is called !Configure.  Double click on !Configure and the !Configure
icon will appear on the right hand side of the icon bar.

Click once on the !Configure icon and a directory viewer will open
which looks like the first block of the screenshot below.  Click once
on the Memory icon and then on the Fonts to open the two windows
containing the dialogue boxes shown in the second and third parts of
the screenshot.

FontSize

The Memory allocation window can be used to adjust the initial size of
the Font cache.  You can use the arrows or you can click on the number
(where I have 32) and change it.  Generally this number is not
important because it is used only as a starting point for the size of
the font cache.  I use 32K so that I've got something rather than
nothing.  You can regard it as the minimum size of your font cache and
it will be important to set it to a value other than zero only if you
have a very limited memory.

FontMax

The size of the font cache grows automatically as you load or need more
outline fonts in memory.  The Font cache limit (mine is 512Kb) sets the
maximum amount of memory which can be allocated to the font cache.
This is the way in which it works.  The font manager reserves space for
a font cache.  If the font cache is too small for all the fonts you
want to use then the Font Manager will make room in two ways.  It can
decide to throw away cached blocks of fonts not in current use (or
those in use but which have not been used for a little while) or it can
increase the size of the font cache.  The font cache grows until it
reaches the limit set by FontMax.  If it grows this way from FontSize
then it will then shrink back (to FontSize if possible) as soon as any
fonts are finished with and which can be discarded.

How large should you make FontMax?

Well, as a general rule the larger the better!  However, what you might
not know is that, when printing, the printer driver uses all available
memory to get on with its job as quickly as possible.  If your printing
is much slower than it ought to be then maybe your FontMax is too large
or too small.

If FontMax is too small then the font manager will have to keep loading
fonts from disc into the font workspace as you print.  If it is too
large then there won't be enough room for the printer driver to get a
grip on its own rendering of the fonts which it needs for the process
of printing.  I have 8Mb of memory in my machine so I can afford to set
FontMax to 512Kb; you may have to compromise at a lower figure.  I have
a strong suspicion that RISC OS 3 works better with a larger FontMax
than that which I found to be the optimum when I had RISC OS 2!

Generally you should try values such as 64Kb, 128Kb, 256Kb and 512Kb
and check the printing times of a 'standard' document.

FontMax1

FontMax1 is for controlling the mixed use of outline and bitmap files
and is of little importance to most users.  I use the value of 20
points to cover the possibility that someone sends me a file containing
bit mapped fonts!  Probably the best value for you is zero.  You can
not set it using the !Configure utility - you have to tap <F12> (for a
*) and then use the RISC OS command *Configure FontMax1 0K (not OK but
zero K).

FontMax2

In the screenshot (at the bottom) you will see a set of four dialogue
boxes (in a window headed Fonts) which popped up when you clicked on
Fonts in the Configuration window.  The first dialogue headed "Use
anti-aliasing for characters" sets the value of FontMax2.

FontMax2 is the maximum size of anti-aliased characters in pixels.  If
a character is larger than this value then anti-aliasing will not be
used.  Anti-aliasing quadruples the size of retained bitmaps in the
cache and also slows down the conversion from outlines.  I use 72
points so that practically all my screen displays are anti-aliased.  If
FontMax2 is set to 0 then anti-aliasing is turned off entirely and this
might be the most suitable value for 1Mb machines!  You may find that
most of your text on screen is below 18 point and so 18 or 24 will be a
suitable value for you.  It is because I want to take screen shots of
72 point text that I use the larger value.

FontMax3

The dialogue box "Use cached bitmaps for characters" corresponds to
FontMax3 and sets the maximum size of any form of retained bitmap.  If
a character to be drawn is larger than this then the outline will be
drawn directly to the screen (or printer) with no caching happening at
all.  If you use font sizes larger than the FontMax3 setting for more
than one or two characters in a document then the screen refresh and
printing will be slowed down to an unacceptable rate.  If you have too
large a value for FontMax3 (72 point) and a small value for FontMax (eg
64Kb) then a single character might flush everything else from the font
cache.  I use 72 points with my 512Kb FontMax and to match my FontMax2.
You might use proportionately lower values such as 18 or 24 points for
FontMax2 and FontMax3 in conjunction with 128Kb for FontMax in a 2Mb
machine.

FontMax4

FontMax4 is normally set to zero.  If it is non-zero then sub-pixel
anti-aliasing is used in the horizontal direction.  This is a
refinement of anti-aliasing in which four separate versions of each
character are retained allowing them to be placed on the screen at
sub-pixel accuracy.  This has a noticeable effect (an improvement) on
the quality of the screen display of very small characters but it slows
the computer down and most users consider the delay to be unacceptable.
I generally use 12 points but I increase it for some of my more
detailed screenshots in which I use large point sizes.

What is sub-pixel anti-aliasing?

Try this experiment in Fireworkz using a mode 12 screen.  Create a line
consisting of lots of upper-case Trinity.Medium 'l's (or lower-case
'l') at 12 point.  Notice how they are not evenly spaced.  They bunch
up in groups with an extra pixel between the bunches.  This is because
the width of the letter is not an exact multiple of the size of a
screen pixel.

If you have RISC OS 2 then you must use *Configure as explained below.
If you have RISC OS 3 then you will be able to use the pop up menus.

Tap <F12> and type *Configure FontMax4 20 to configure FontMax4 to
'work' up to 20 points.  Tap <Return> twice and see the difference; the
bunching is smoothed out.  You can use the !Magnifier package if you
want a closer look.  Unless you want to retain sub-pixel anti-aliasing
be sure you reset FontMax4 to zero by tapping <F12> and typing
*Configure FontMax4 0 followed by tapping <Return> twice.  Note that
changing a FontMax configuration has an immediate effect and a
<Ctrl Break> is not necessary.  Like all CMOS RAM settings, the value
of all the FontMax settings are retained during the time when the
computer is switched off so that when you switch on you will find you
have the same settings as when you switched off!

FontMax5

FontMax5 is similar to FontMax4 but controls sub-pixel anti-aliasing in
the vertical direction rather than the horizontal direction.  Its use
is even rarer than that of FontMax4 and is usually left on the default
value, zero to turn off sub-pixel anti-aliasing in the vertical
direction.  I use a value of 12 points — but then I have a large value
for FontMax (512Kb) and I have 8Mb of memory to play with.

Summarising FontMax settings

Do not confuse screen refresh rate with the Fireworkz 'problem' of slow
reformatting time on large documents (ie 20 or more pages); that is a
different problem which we have dealt with in an earlier article.  The
slow reformatting problem probably happened when you loaded a large
PipeDream format document into a pre 1.07 version of Fireworkz.

If you have a document which is not much larger than the screen and you
still have a slow screen refresh rate then the chances are that your
FontMax (Font cache limit) is too small.  If printing is slow then your
FontMax value might be too small or too big!  A FontMax which is too
big uses up too much of your available memory and causes printing to
slow down.  Get FontMax 'right' before you have a go at 'tweeking up'
FontMax3.  Changing FontMax2 might improve the 'look' of the screen
display.  FontMax4 and FontMax5 will further improve the appearance of
the screen but, unless you are taking screen shots for manuals (or to
send to someone on a disc) then it probably won't be of much interest
to you.  Finally, FontMax1 is useful only if someone sends you a
document which uses an old (Arthur OS type) bit mapped font.  I hope
that you never need it.

Finally

It would seem that the time has come to remind you once again of the
advantages of sending me your problems on a disc rather than just as
writing on paper.  If you send me a worked example demonstrating your
problem then I can check it quickly to see if your problem arises with
my set up.  Secondly, there is no ambiguity as to exactly what you
mean.  Thirdly, I can modify your files and send you a worked solution
which you will find easier than a mountain of printed words from me.
Finally, I can make your problem and its solution available to others
by the simple process of copying the relevant files to their disc.

You can write to me directly at the Abacus Training address which you
will find at the back of Archive.  Your letter will reach me much more
quickly than if you send it to me via the Archive office.  If you live
in the UK it will help my expenses if you send me return postage - I do
appreciate that overseas correspondents will not be able to do this
even though when I write to them it costs more than a UK letter (but if
you live overseas then don't let that deter you).
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