This text contains some rambling about needed/done
refactorings/improvements to the StrikeFont and FontSet classes.


The StrikeFont class has three access methods (in version 2.6)

familyName:size:
familyName:size:emphasized:
familyNames

to access certain fonts.  The first two are for requesting a specific font
in a specific size (or anything closeby).  Currently, the size argument is
the height of the font in pixels.  I'd recommend to change the behavior
into requesting the point size.  This allows one to switch fonts more
easily because the point size is always 8 or 10 while the pixel size is -
depending on the font - 13, 15 or even more pixel.

The change needs to be done in TextStyle>>fontIndexOfSize:.

This method is also used by TextMorph>>string:fontName:size: and
BookMorph>>insertPageShowingString:fontName:fontSize:, but fortunately,
these methods aren't used at all, so a change in behavior should be possible.

I'd also recommend to alphabetically sort the answer of familyNames.  This
makes the Cmd+K fonts menu of paragraph editors much more useful.  The
method is only used here.

The method StrikeFont>>familySizeFace should probably also answer point
sizes instead of heights, but fortunately, this method seems to be unused
and could probably also be deleted.  The only usage is in
TextStyle>>printOn: and can easily replaced by calling name directly.

Please explain the different between StrikeFont>>lineGrid and
StrikeFont>>height to me.  IMHO one method can be removed.

What's the meaning of raster in StrikeFont?  It seems completely unused.

I dislike that StrikeFont>>readFromStrike2Stream: closes it file stream.
This is against the rule that you should be touch the resources of other
persons.  It also requires the FontSet class to use a ReadWriteStream to
read strike fonts because that's the only non-file stream that understands
close.  I recommend to move the close command to readFromStrike2named:

With the exception of the height -> pointSize convertion, I did the
proposed changes in an 2.6 squeak.  As the changeset became a little too
big, I will not attach it.  But I'll be happy to send it to anybody who's
interested.


Especially when working with new fonts like Tahoma, the synthetic fonts
Squeak automatically generates for bold type faces look very ugly compared
to the real font.  Therefore I extended the system to allow more fonts in a
fontArray.   I hacked StrikeFont>>reset which will now add the other
variants directly to the derivativeFonts array instead of nilling out
everything.

To allow these fonts to be saved, I had also change the FontSet class to
use a new method "sizeNNN" where NNN is not only the point size but the
complete name.  It's still called size because FontSet is scanning for
selectors starting with size.

This change allows also to unify ComicPlain and ComicBold to a single Comic
family.  I created a new font called ComicSans which does this and also
contains the squeak specific ^ and _ glyphs.  I noticed that the Squeak
font is also based on Microsoft's Comic Sans MS and it seems that the
Squeak central thought that including that font isn't against the licence.
Is this right?


bye
--
Stefan Matthias Aust  //  Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf.