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Topic: Options for text without vertical separation (Read 231 times) |
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treehouse
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Re: Options for text without vertical separation
« Reply #4 on: Jan 14th, 2018, 11:20am » |
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Yep, my bad, you're completely right. I've installed BBCDSL on my Linux machine and tried it. I'm not often right, and I'm wrong again.  I didn't think BBCDSL would be different on that sort of issue. That's an interesting default font, and quite unexpected, but I suppose that's what my Electron had, just 8*8. And IIRC, in several modes characters did touch vertically. I think it was that vague memory that contributed to my confusion when I couldn't find a mode in BB4W that did the same.
I don't know much about different font types, but I see what you're saying. I get confused between what my Electron did and what BB4W does (not an emulation, which is a great boon) - now DSL has thrown me a new curve-ball.
I like the additional editing options in Andy Parkes' editor - quick addition/subtraction of REMs, etc. - but I've not tried it much. The display has some odd quirks on that machine; I don't know if it's common. The menus disappear (the elements in them) if you open one of them from the menu bar and then mouse-over others in the bar, things like that.
Having said that, I've got a bit more used to the BB4W editor. If I only use line numbers for error reports or whatever (and in fact they're not essential since the cursor finds the ERL in the program), editing is easier with drag-n-drop without line numbers getting taking into the text. My top desire, if I was to dig into the code or write an editor myself, would be for the cursor to wrap at ends of lines (and beginnings of lines or line numbers), even if direct positioning of it with the mouse was unrestricted. They aren't big issues, and I could always write a macro to do some stuff.
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Richard Russell
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Re: Options for text without vertical separation
« Reply #5 on: Jan 14th, 2018, 4:26pm » |
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on Jan 14th, 2018, 11:20am, treehouse wrote:| I didn't think BBCDSL would be different on that sort of issue. |
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Both BB4W and BBCSDL are implementations of the BBC BASIC programming language - they are most definitely not BBC Micro emulators; this is a most important distinction. Things like character fonts have nothing whatever to do with the language - they are features of the machine's hardware and operating system - and therefore you should not expect them to be similar (although SDL runs under Windows, it is effectively an independent 'virtual machine').
Indeed, if you look more broadly across the range of 30-plus platforms on which BBC BASIC has been implemented - like the old Amstrad Notepad computers (NC 100/150/200) or the Sinclair (Cambridge) Z88, or MS-DOS - you will not in general find that they have much in common when it comes to features like fonts or graphics.
If what you are looking for is a BBC Micro emulator - and from your remarks about the detailed characteristics of fonts and display attributes it sounds as though you may be - you are in completely the wrong place. There are excellent emulators like BeebEm and JSBeeb which perhaps you should be investigating.
I appreciate that I may well have added to some possible confusion by taking advantage of the power and flexibility of Windows on the one hand, and SDL 2.0 on the other, to make BB4W and BBCSDL more compatible with the BBC Micro (and Acorn Archimedes) than some of my other implementations. But you should consider that a bonus, not an expectation!
And it most definitely does not extend to fonts. Like every other version of BBC BASIC that I have been responsible for, the default font used by BB4W is the machine's native fixed-pitch font (in Windows it's called FixedSys). The only reason that BBCSDL, exceptionally, defaults to an 8x8 bitmapped font is that SDL is a 2D games engine and doesn't have any concept of 'native font'.
Additionally, although both BB4W and BBCSDL support changing the font (using the *FONT command) they are less compatible with each other in this respect than almost any other.
I don't know whether you've purchased the full version of BB4W, but if you have - under a misapprehension of what the product is all about - contact me privately and I will refund your payment.
Richard.
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treehouse
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Re: Options for text without vertical separation
« Reply #6 on: Jan 14th, 2018, 7:06pm » |
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Thanks, Richard, but my last reply was just an explanation of why I'm confused, not a complaint at all, or intended to suggest that you had caused my confusion. As I said, the fact that it's not an emulator is "a great boon". I bought BB4W years ago and only wish I'd had time and the focus to use it more. I love it. I wanted the power and speed of modern computers but with a language I was familiar with. I soon realised that I wasn't completely familiar with it, and obviously couldn't be, since it had a modern computer to control with it. But, as above, it still trips me up. I've unconsciously made the assumption that the default font was a sort of 'emulation' unless you invoked specific ones on the system, I think, something like that.
I've got a perfect Acorn Electron emulator in the loft, complete with tape deck, Plus 1 and RGB monitor.
On the other hand, I'm curious now, so I've just downloaded Elkulator to have a mess with. Saves getting looks from the missus when I set up another computer in the study. 
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| « Last Edit: Jan 14th, 2018, 7:16pm by treehouse » |
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