[rescue] Sun Kit Needed for EE Student Here

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 11 May 2006 @ 08:02 -0700, Don Y said:

> > I was just curious. I haven't had one for awhile now.
> 
> Though, having said that, I recall building an Xrender
> *package* (as a dependancy for <mumblemumble>)...

I have not quite figured out how that can work, since XRender uses the
local GPU for doing the heavy work.

It won't be long before X will be sitting on top of OpenGL. There are now two
methods competing.

> The only horrendous font issues I found on the X terminals
> (which is where I spend all my time) was trying to support
> CDE with bad font matches (solved by copying Sun's fonts onto
> my font server)

If I view documentation for non-trivial amounts of time, like a PDF
file, the fuzzy fonts really start bothering my eyes.

Other problems I've had are matching screen fonts to output fonts, which
modern X and things like CUPs has almost eliminated completely.

> > I personally hate anti-aliased fonts. For years it was the only way
> > to avoid a lot of fonts looking terrible on a screen, but it look
> > fuzzy to me and wasn't easy on the eyes for long-term viewing.
> 
> Yup.  It *is* fuzzy.  On purpose.  :<  I'd rather live with The Jaggies

That's why I like subpixel rendering.  No jaggies and it isn't fuzzy.

> > I spent most of my time in terminal windows too, and that's specifically
> > why I use pixpixel rendering for fonts.
> 
> Oh.  I find I can use very small fonts without any problems.
> But, they are just *plain* (unadorned) fonts.  No other
> attributes applied (italic, bold, etc.).  E.g., emacs doesn't
> fare well when it wants to syntax hilight...

I have a hard time finding a font that I like for programming.  

The best programming fonts I have found are too small for my 1600x1200 screen.

I want certain things in a programming font at a minimum:

	- zeros are slashed
	- things like 1 and l are distinct
	- no serifs
	- not jagged or fuzzy
	- works in all the programs I need to use

Also, for those out there who think KDE and Gnome have nothing to do
with font rendering: you are dead wrong.

*MOST* fonts can be handled by X now, but quite a few cannot. Apps still
need to do some of the work themselves.

In particular, xterm fails to render some monospaced fonts properly, because
it lacks the font support found in KDE and Gnome.  xterm recently got 
better font support, and since it is actively developed, the problem
should be fixed.

Either that, or the remaining font code will be completely moved to X.

I suppose at that point libraries like Pango will be more for font management
than rendering.

> Get up and take a break!  :>  It's GOOD for you to do, anyway
> (let your eyes focus on something besides a close-in screen).

That's pretty obvious, and I've been operating like that for 20 years
now.

It doesn't matter after you've been working for a certain number of hours.

> > My original issue was just that when not running the desktop, I lost
> > good rendering of fonts and widgets.
> 
> But that would be the desktop code?

If an application cannot or will not load support libraries when running
under a plain window manager, then things go bad sometimes.

In particular, a lot of GTK/Gnome apps must have Pango loaded to do
fonts properly.

Given time, this should be resolved.  X has improved a great deal in
recent years.

> Yup.  In my case, since I don't work in a desktop, those apps just
> look silly "on their own".

I suppose the positive side is that they run faster.

I used to never use desktop applications, but there are several that
are excellent now.

I just catalogued my book collection using Tellico, 172 books, in about
1 hour.

Doing that with vi and bibtex would have taken weeks.

Of course, I hate how people write GUI apps: all the code integrated.

If Tellico (and other apps) were written as wrappers on non-GUI
libraries and programs, then we could do the same work on the command
line if we wanted to.

I've always like software that runs great with or without its GUI.

> > I'd like to see uniform application support in X, and see it without
> > having to have a million different competing widget libraries
> > loaded.
> 
> Fresco would have been an interesting rehash.

You know, I never minded Motif myself. If the Open Group, or whoever it was,
had not been so bloody stupid, it would have been used everywhere, and let's
face it: Motif could have been fixed, 2.x didn't have to be the mess it was,
and in time it could have been just as featureful as any current system.

But, now we have:

	Motif, slowly dying.

	KDE, rapidly improving, but rather C++ focused.  I find this one
	usable without getting in my way.

	Gnome, tying itself in a knot to copy Windows and .NET, and
	the hell with production quality and resource usage.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The trade of governing has always been
monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of
mankind.  -- Thomas Paine"]