I still have the revised windows driver that I can blow the dust off and offer as a possible replacement.
> On May 13, 2015, at 1:59 PM, Alan W. Irwin <ir...@beluga.phys.uvic.ca> wrote: > > Hi Aaron: > > I am putting this further discussion on the plplot-devel mailing list > since some developers there have more device expertise than I do (and > also a lot more Windows expertise) and therefore will likely want to > contribute to the discussion. > >> On 2015-05-13 07:37-0500 Aaron Hexamer wrote: >> >> [....] I've been wondering is if it >> would be feasible to make a driver that uses more of Window's raw API for >> shapes and text, thus avoiding the need for libs like Qt, Cairo-Pango, etc. >> - one would still get portability through other drivers on other platforms. >> It looks like wingcc is somewhat like that, but preferred to use Freetype. >> I gather from looking at the history that text rendering is challenging, >> especially around vertical alignment topics. > > For your information, the plfreetype approach is strongly deprecated. > The primary reason for this is the user can only control the selection > of the needed font files at cmake time or else at run-time via > environment variables which is a very clumsy approach. A secondary > reason is the plfreetype approach only works for simple text layout > (left-to-right) languages. Instead, our preferred approach is to rely > on external libraries such as pango/cairo/fontconfig, Qt, or wxwidgets > to automatically select the best system font (of the sans, serif, > normal weight, bold, etc., generic classes of fonts that PLplot > supports) to render each unicode glyph encountered (which > automatically allows multi-language plots such as example 24) and to > do the required (complex) text layout. > > Thus, I agree that the plfreetype approach used by wingcc (the last > device driver that still uses that approach) should be completely > replaced by calling the appropriate native Windows API for selecting > the best system font to render each unicode glyph that is encountered > and to do the text layout. > > I think in the past that Arjen Markus has commented this approach > should be possible, but he has not had time to pursue it further. > Also, my understanding is that Jim Dishaw has worked on implementing a > Windows device driver. I am not sure what the status of that project > is, but he might have some comments also about the feasibility of > modifying wingcc this way. > > Anyhow, if you feel such modification of wingcc is possible, I would > encourage you to give it a try following, say, the broad outline of > the alt_unicode text handling that is done in drivers/cairo.c. > > Alan > __________________________ > Alan W. Irwin > > Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, > University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). > > Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state > implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time > Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting > software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project > (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); > and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). > __________________________ > > Linux-powered Science > __________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > One dashboard for servers and applications across Physical-Virtual-Cloud > Widest out-of-the-box monitoring support with 50+ applications > Performance metrics, stats and reports that give you Actionable Insights > Deep dive visibility with transaction tracing using APM Insight. > http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/290420510;117567292;y > _______________________________________________ > Plplot-devel mailing list > Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ One dashboard for servers and applications across Physical-Virtual-Cloud Widest out-of-the-box monitoring support with 50+ applications Performance metrics, stats and reports that give you Actionable Insights Deep dive visibility with transaction tracing using APM Insight. http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/290420510;117567292;y _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
