Stefan Tiedje

umenu-issues

On 6-Apr-2006, at 15:28, Stefan Tiedje wrote:

> To test this patch you need to have Maestro installed as a font.

Font availability is a generally ugly issue with Max patches.

Telling people "install this font to use my patch," even if you 

include the font, is not really good enough.

In the period from 1986-2002 or so, embedding fonts in Resource Forks 

would have been a viable way to provide specific fonts for patches. 

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at things, 

Max always choose to pretend that patcher files couldn't have 

ResForks, although you could (and still can) do a few neat things 

I would dearly like to be able to embed a font into a patcher, 

preferably some way that is not entirely cross platform-phobic (yeah, 

which knocks out Resources). Patches-as-bundles?

As it stands, the only fonts you can use with relative confidence in 

Max are Geneva/New York on Mac OS and Arial/Times New Roman on 

Windows, with Max forcing a switch when crossing platform and damn 

the differences in font metrics. Let's hope Max 5 (or whatever's 

next) finds a nice clean solution. In the meantime you can render all 

text as images to get pixel-identical layout cross-platform. Won't 

Sorry, I don't have any solution for the umenu problems.

Peter Castine +--> Litter Power & Litter Bundle for Jitter

iCE: Sequencing, Recording & |home | chez nous|

Interface Building for |bei uns | i nostri|

On 6-Apr-2006, at 15:28, Stefan Tiedje wrote:
> To test this patch you need to have Maestro installed as a font.

Telling people "install this font to use my patch," even if you  
include the font, is not really good enough.

In the period from 1986-2002 or so, embedding fonts in Resource Forks  
would have been a viable way to provide specific fonts for patches.  
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at things,  
Max always choose to pretend that patcher files couldn't have  
ResForks, although you could (and still can) do a few neat things  
with 'em.

I would dearly like to be able to embed a font into a patcher,  
preferably some way that is not entirely cross platform-phobic (yeah,  
which knocks out Resources). Patches-as-bundles?

As it stands, the only fonts you can use with relative confidence in  
Max are Geneva/New York on Mac OS and Arial/Times New Roman on  
Windows, with Max forcing a switch when crossing platform and damn  
the differences in font metrics. Let's hope Max 5 (or whatever's  
next) finds a nice clean solution. In the meantime you can render all  
text as images to get pixel-identical layout cross-platform. Won't  
help with your menu problems though.

--------------    http://www.bek.no/~pcastine/Litter/    -------------
Peter Castine             +--> Litter Power & Litter Bundle for Jitter

> Font availability is a generally ugly issue with Max patches.

> Telling people "install this font to use my patch," even if you include 

What is your solution for getting Noteheads, Clefs and alike? Draw them 

all by hand? For this even pictures won't help as they have to be 

combined. You should know that as an old Finale hacker.

I choose Maestro as it seems its distributed with Finale Notepad, 

available for Windows and Mac and the font name would be the same on 

> Sorry, I don't have any solution for the umenu problems.

It was less of a problem than reporting a buggy behaviour... something 

Peter Castine wrote:
> Font availability is a generally ugly issue with Max patches.
>
> Telling people "install this font to use my patch," even if you  include 
> the font, is not really good enough.

What is your solution for getting Noteheads, Clefs and alike? Draw them 
all by hand? For this even pictures won't help as they have to be 
combined. You should know that as an old Finale hacker.
I choose Maestro as it seems its distributed with Finale Notepad, 
available for Windows and Mac and the font name would be the same on 
both platforms.

It was less of a problem than reporting a buggy behaviour... something 
for the cycling folks.

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         Stefan Tiedje
         Klanggestalter
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On 7-Apr-2006, at 9:29, Stefan Tiedje wrote:

> What is your solution for getting Noteheads, Clefs and alike? Draw 

No, of course not. What you really want to be able to do is to embed 

a font in a patcher. That ability would go a long way towards making 

Max/MSP patches, collectives, and standalones a more satisfying 

> What is your solution for getting Noteheads, Clefs and alike? Draw  
> them all by hand?

No, of course not. What you really want to be able to do is to embed  
a font in a patcher. That ability would go a long way towards making  
Max/MSP patches, collectives, and standalones a more satisfying  
layout experience.

On 7-Apr-2006, at 10:07, Peter Castine wrote:

> What you really want to be able to do is to embed a font in a patcher.

That was expressed poorly. What I want to say is, if Max had the 

capability of embedding fonts inside patchers, that would be a 

simpler and more elegant alternative to telling users "you must 

install font XXX in order to use my patch."

If Cycling '74 doesn't want to provide that capability, I think it 

would be possible for a 3rd party external to store font data inside 

a patcher and to pass it to the OS at loadbang time. Not trivial but 

On 7-Apr-2006, at 10:07, Peter Castine wrote:
> What you really want to be able to do is to embed a font in a patcher.

That was expressed poorly. What I want to say is, if Max had the  
capability of embedding fonts inside patchers, that would be a  
simpler and more elegant alternative to telling users "you must  
install font XXX in order to use my patch."

If Cycling '74 doesn't want to provide that capability, I think it  
would be possible for a 3rd party external to store font data inside  
a patcher and to pass it to the OS at loadbang time. Not trivial but  
might work.

umenu issues