> > Why, for instance, is a `StrokingTextPainter' so radically different
> > than a 'StrokeShapePainter'?
>
> Because text can change color in the middle, and it also needs
> to support being reordered to handle bi-directional text (like
> Arabic or Hebrew).
In reading this, I'm reminded of one of my favor "cookies" from the
Unix `fortune' program:
Speaking as someone who has delved into the intricacies of PL/I, I
am sure that only Real Men could have written such a
machine-hogging, cycle-grabbing, all-encompassing monster. Allocate
an array and free the middle third? Sure! Why not? Multiply a
character string times a bit string and assign the result to a float
decimal? Go ahead! Free a controlled variable procedure parameter
and reallocate it before passing it back? Overlay three different
types of variable on the same memory location? Anything you say!
Write a recursive macro? Well, no, but Real Men use rescan. How
could a language so obviously designed and written by Real Men not
be intended for Real Man use?
It might be helpful to provide some "convenience methods" for those
cases where one wants to apply a change to a simple string that
doesn't require translating the middle three characters to Navajo and
printing them backwards on clay tablets in Cuneiform. :-)
Anyhow, I got it working, so many thanks for that (and bearing with my
rants).
> Well this basic approach is the one used by the JDK for complex
> text so it's not like we invented it. . . .
Don't get me started on the Rococo perversity of the JDK. . .
I'm reminded here of the flyer that I saw being handed out at SIGGRAPH
back in the late 1980s (I think Boston in 1989), the text of which I
reproduce here:
The X Window System:
A mistake carried out to perfection.
A moment of convenience, a lifetime of regret.
Dissatisfaction guaranteed.
Don't get frustrated without it.
Even your dog won't like it.
Flaky and built to stay that way.
Complex non-solutions to simple non-problems.
Flawed beyond belief.
Form follows malfunction.
Garbage at your fingertips.
If we raise our standards, we'll let you know.
Ignorance is our most important resource.
It could be worse, but it will take time.
It could happen to you.
Japan's secret weapon.
Let it get in YOUR way.
Live the nightmare.
More than enough rope.
Never had it, never will.
Next day service in a nanosecond world.
No hardware is safe.
Power tools for power fools.
Power tools for power losers.
Putting new limits on productivity.
Simplicity made complex.
The bleeding edge of technology.
The cutting edge of obsolescence.
The art of incompetence.
The defacto substandard.
The first fully modular software disaster.
The joke that kills.
The problem for your problem.
There's got to be a better way.
Warn your friends about it.
You'd better sit down.
You'll envy the dead.
Yes, I'm joking. Mostly.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
spl
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