Re: Font for a menu?


"Mihai N." <nmihai_year_2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Xns9B91630AC0F6MihaiN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I wasn't aware this was a user option.

And I have just discovered that when I run my own software, I get pop-up
context menus *with* underlines when I use the context-menu key on the
keyboard, but *without* underlines when I right click. I *thought* I was
generating them with the same code, so something needs looking into here

XP: Desktop -> Right-click -> Properties -> Appearance (tab 4) ->
Effects -> Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until
I press the Alt key
Vista: Desktop -> Right-click -> Personalize -> Ease of Access (bottom-left)
-> Make my keyboard easier to use -> Underline keyboard shortcuts and
access keys

API: SystemParametersInfo with SPI_GETKEYBOARDCUES
All Win versions up to 2000 used to show the underscore all the time, and
there was no option to hide it.


Thanks - I was unaware of that. (I have only recently stopped programming for Win98 compatibility and am gradually discovering all the things which it doesn't have.) When I go in on Vista however, something starts talking at me like a demented American Stephen Hawking, and my reaction would definitely have been to stop looking there (for *anything*) pretty damned quick.

But I think it is very likely that Theme API whould honor that.

Yes.


You might check the official Unicode chart for the musical symbol block:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D100.pdf

At various times it has been my constant companion. :-) The double sharp (1D12A) and double flat (1D12B) symbols are there, but...


To my untrained eye it looks like these are the values:
- an upward triangle:the Greek capital delta works well.
1D149;MUSICAL SYMBOL TRIANGLE NOTEHEAD UP BLACK;So;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

No. that's a traingular notehead - for use in some very obscure notational systems for beginners, which use different shaped note-heads for different pitches (in the hope that it might help). The symbol I meant replaces "maj" in the chord name Cmaj7 and looks exactly like a greek capital delta, the same height as the C.

- a double sharp sign: it's in the 4-byte section of UTF-16
and I haven't found any font with it. (I have to use x)
1D12A;MUSICAL SYMBOL DOUBLE SHARP;So;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

That's the one - the main problem is that Microsoft don't distribute a font which has it: otherwise I'd check that my code works for characters outside the 2-byte UTF16 range and use it! Similarly the double flat.

- a little circle in the air with a stroke through it.
(I haven't even located that in the unicode set!)
1D1C9;MUSICAL SYMBOL TEMPUS PERFECTUM CUM PROLATIONE
PERFECTA DIMINUTION-1;So;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;


No that is another weird historical thing for "mensural notation" - think of monks chanting in the 14th century :-) We should be writing in Latin to discuss these - ah, but I see you are :-) The (very modern) symbol I need is like a scandinavian crossed-out-o (I must learn the name of the damned thing) ø but smaller and raised - like a degree symbol. It signifies a half-diminished chord. I think the Unicode set has been defined by classical musicians with a strong interest in early plainsong :-)

Also the flat symbol is very poorly spaced in the text which comes up.
So I want to specify my own non-unicode symbols font which has all of
these characters.

If you want to make your own font, why not make it standard, with
proper Unicode mappings, instead of a symbol font?
I did some searching, and I was unable to find anything decent.
So if you make it standard you might be able to fill a niche that seems
badly served right now (and maybe make some money in the process :-)

Good question.

<music problems - bordering on rant>
The Unicode musical symbols are fine for writing *about* music, but it is far from clear to me that they are any use at all for writing music. For example, the treble clef symbol (1D11E) looks great, but does the Unicode Standard prescribe anything about where its origin is? If not, how do I know how to place it on the stave? Of course there is also a chunk of stave 1D11A but do I really want to draw a stave with a long sequence of these characters rather than simply drawing 5 horizontal lines?

Notes have a head/bulb, a stem, and a tail/flag. I notice that heads and flags exist in the set - but only flags for upward stems. They are intended to join onto stems via the mechanism for creating composite characters by the look of it, but stems have different lengths and it isn't clear to me how this will work. To get flags for downward stems the existing flags will have to be reflected about a horizontal line (not rotated) - do Windows drawing functions allow this? [I have downward flags in my font, but there is no place for them in a Unicode set.]

Braces like 1D114 are needed in arbitrary lengths (I draw them with almost-parallel beziers which reproduce the changing thickness of the stroke).

Plenty of other symbols are so geometrically variable (eg groups of notes with stems joined by a beam of almost any length and angle) that drawing lines (rather than text) is the only sensible approach. And to combine lines and text, you need absolute control over the origins of your text symbols.

For these reasons all music programs (and I'm pretty sure it's *all*) have their own compatible fonts. They don't even agree on what the independent symbols are. Eg Unicode has a treble clef with a little 8 underneath it and one with the 8 above: 1D120 and 1D11F. I regard this as overkill, as I can draw a little 8 by myself (but of course I need to know the origin and dimensions of the bare clef symbol 1D11E).

Summary: I don't think that that commercial Unicode fonts are going to take off among music programs and, if that is the case, where is the pressure for introducing them to available fonts?

I *am* starting to use the flat and natural symbols (which are elsewhere at 266D and 266E) for titles like "Sonata in Eb" but they are not well designed in the current Microsoft fonts. The character stealing mechanism gets them from Lucida Sans Unicode, but there are acres of space around it giving

"Sonata in E b".

(Ok, I exaggerate, but it clearly wasn't designed by a musician). In the case in question I want "Eb" on a menu - not "E b" :-)
</music problems>

That is something else I hadn't thought about. I need to win a few other
battles before I get that far!

At least you care about it and sound like you will have it on the
back-burner. Which is already more than many application I have seen :-)

It is now there on the back burner :-)

I share your passion for the common interface of Windows programs - I think it has been *the* major force in making computers accessible to home owners, much more than is apparently currently recognised. (And these people are my customers!)

And I tend to stick to standards when I'm aware of them. (The seem to have changed since I got my copy of the IBM standards book mentioned elsewhere in the thread <g>).

OTOH I do "stretch" (rather than break) them a little, if I feel there are good pragmatic reasons. My Windows background colours are configurable (but always with a "use Windows colours" option.) That way I know instantly which version of my software I am looking at, and this is important when I'm answering a customer question about the version he/she has. Some of my tool bar buttons do useful things when you right click them (often the opposite to what they do when you left click them), but I don't know how many people use that, as I always provide alternative methods for those to whom it is not natural.

But usually doing things "the natural Windows way" is the route to getting fewest customer queries (and thereby a quiet life). Skins are evil as they erode this. But I probably answer more questions about the Microsoft Windows Media Player than Microsoft does - so what do they care?

Dave
--
David Webber
Author of 'Mozart the Music Processor'
http://www.mozart.co.uk
For discussion/support see
http://www.mozart.co.uk/mozartists/mailinglist.htm


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