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lew247

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Joined: 23/12/2015
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1702

Posted: 10:07am 19 Jul 2016

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Could someone explain in plain easy to understand terms how Fonts work please?
I've read the manual several times but I just cannot get my head around it.
It says "MMBasic includes one built in font"
but them goes on to say "The MMBasic firmware zip file includes
over a dozen embedded fonts covering a wide range of character sets and includes symbol fonts"

What zip file? and how do you actually use the fonts in it?
Do you have to put them somewhere specific? and if so how does the Micromite know it it's Font #1 font #2, font #8 or so on?

Basically what I'd like is someone to explain fonts and how you actually use them.

The manual is brilliant but unfortunately I am not one of those people who actually understand about Microcontrollers.
I struggle learning new things, and unfortunately I just cannot get my head around what the instructions actually mean.

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6269

Posted: 01:11pm 19 Jul 2016

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Download the firmware from Geoff's website
http://geoffg.net/Downloads/Micromite/Micromite_Firmware.zip

Extract the ZIP

There should be a folder called "embedded fonts"
Inside that folder is a PDF you should read.
There is also a folder called "fonts" which contains the extra fonts.

Treat them like a cfunction - just add the ones you want to your BAS file and enjoy.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

yahoo2

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Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 04:15pm 19 Jul 2016

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I am as green as you Lew, however I was doing some bedtime reading last night. With Geoff's boat computer program for example it is too big to fit in the memory as a single .bas file. it fits if loaded as .hex

He loads the two fonts as a single .bas file then uses the LIBRARY SAVE command to compress and add it to the MMBasic firmware and delete it from the main memory. Then the boat computer.bas program is loaded after.

the old V4.5 manual says there is a limit of 8 files (cfunction, fonts , drivers, etc) that can be put together as a .bas then loaded and stored as a LIBRARY. Is that still the case? no mention of a limit in the 5.1 manual, perhaps I missed it. I had a quick browse in the 5.2 manual and could not see any mention of a file limit.

I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6269

Posted: 04:54pm 19 Jul 2016

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You can number your fonts up to 16 so I assume that that is the limit for fonts.
Other subs/functions in the library area are limited by the available memory.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

WhiteWizzard
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Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2932

Posted: 08:50pm 19 Jul 2016

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@lew247

One thing I HIGHLY recommend is TassyJim's excellent FontTweak program.

If you have not done so already, download & run the app; and along with the pdf's in TassyJim's link above you will have all you need to master Font's.

Any issues then do post back here . . .

WW

Phil23
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Joined: 27/03/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 1667

Posted: 12:22pm 20 Jul 2016

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yahoo2 said I am as green as you Lew, however I was doing some bedtime reading last night. With Geoff's boat computer program for example it is too big to fit in the memory as a single .bas file. it fits if loaded as .hex

He loads the two fonts as a single .bas file then uses the LIBRARY SAVE command to compress and add it to the MMBasic firmware and delete it from the main memory. Then the boat computer.bas program is loaded after...

I find studying Geoff's projects & code to be a good learning source.

In his different back projects, different font's are used in different ways.

The earlier ones show them clearly at the end of the main code & some others show how they sit in the separate code file & explains how they are saved to the library.

Just a case of pasting the block of code & hex at the end of the file & making sure font numbers aren't duplicated.

You can then check on memory available & make the decision to have them in the library instead of at the end of the main code.

Phil

yahoo2

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Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 08:25pm 20 Jul 2016

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I haven't tackled any of Matherp's stuff yet, I have copied a couple bits and saved them in a folder to try and not named or tagged them properly, a month or two later I have no idea what they are or which topic I found them in.

I am going to have to get a bit more organised.

I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...

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