I spent some time on figuring that one out, so I will just write a few words here in case anyone else has the same problem.
In a standard Debian or Ubuntu installation, perl-tk programs look awful. All fonts are scaled bitmaps, and it looks terribly. Most of the "normal" fonts accessible in other program groups are not available. Using Canvas is a pain in the neck, because many fonts (like Helvetica or Arial) are substituted with Nimbus Sans. In short, it doesn't look serious and is on the verge of not being usable for anyone but the perl-tk program author.
For a long while, I thought that this is just the way it is. I am one of those people who will never compile things on their own if a package is available. However, I recently found that Tk can be compiled with XFT (font manager) support, which gives perl-tk programs the ability to use all fonts accessible from XFT and antialiasing.
Using CPAN, I have downloaded the most recent perl-tk sources and recompiled it with the XFT=1 option (perl Makefile.PL XFT=1). It is necessary, though, to install libxft2-dev and libxrender-dev packages.
Everything seems to work, anti aliasing and all the different fonts are now accessible, it is stable and looks very, very good.
-- Uskadara is a little town in Turkey And in the old days, many women had male secretaries Oh, well, that's Turkey!
January Weiner wrote: > Using CPAN, I have downloaded the most recent perl-tk sources and > recompiled it with the XFT=1 option (perl Makefile.PL XFT=1). It is > necessary, though, to install libxft2-dev and libxrender-dev packages.
Those are only build-depends though and wouldn't be needed on every Debian system if the package was built with XFT=1.
I'd be keen to see the Debian Package built that way. Maybe you should email Michael Schultheiss the Debian maintainer of Perl-Tk and suggest it.
Posting your message to the Perl-Tk list would also be a good idea.
> Everything seems to work, anti aliasing and all the different fonts are now > accessible, it is stable and looks very, very good.
I'd certainly like to see my Perl-Tk applications look better.
regards,
Colin
-- Colin Tuckley | co...@tuckley.org | PGP/GnuPG Key Id +44(0)1903 236872 | +44(0)7799 143369 | 0x1B3045CE
Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first, and the lesson afterwards. - Anonymous
Colin Tuckley <co...@tuckley.org> wrote: > I'd be keen to see the Debian Package built that way. Maybe you should email > Michael Schultheiss the Debian maintainer of Perl-Tk and suggest it.
Yes, I have already done that, Michael was very reactive and said he would prepare a new package shortly.
> > Everything seems to work, anti aliasing and all the different fonts are now > > accessible, it is stable and looks very, very good. > I'd certainly like to see my Perl-Tk applications look better.
It makes a huge difference, believe me. Not only it becomes more usable -- the fonts that are used for menus when launching a perl-tk program on a default Debian are barely readable -- it also matters if you want anyone else to use your program.
Cheers, j
-- Uskadara is a little town in Turkey And in the old days, many women had male secretaries Oh, well, that's Turkey!
On Feb 17, 1:26 pm, January Weiner <january.wei...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Colin Tuckley <c...@tuckley.org> wrote: > > I'd be keen to see the Debian Package built that way. Maybe you should email > > Michael Schultheiss the Debian maintainer of Perl-Tk and suggest it.
> Yes, I have already done that, Michael was very reactive and said he would > prepare a new package shortly.
> > > Everything seems to work, anti aliasing and all the different fonts are now > > > accessible, it is stable and looks very, very good. > > I'd certainly like to see my Perl-Tk applications look better.
> It makes a huge difference, believe me. Not only it becomes more usable -- > the fonts that are used for menus when launching a perl-tk program on a > default Debian are barely readable -- it also matters if you want anyone > else to use your program.
Does anyone know if the Debian Perl-Tk packages have been modernized with the anti-aliased text features discussed here? I, too, would enjoy the benefits of anti-aliased text in my Perl-Tk programs. I, too, would prefer to download ready-to-use packages, than to compile these softwares myself.
woodenbicy...@hotmail.com wrote: > Does anyone know if the Debian Perl-Tk packages have been modernized > with the anti-aliased text features discussed here? I, too, would > enjoy the benefits of anti-aliased text in my Perl-Tk programs. I, > too, would prefer to download ready-to-use packages, than to compile > these softwares myself.
The changes won't make it into Etch, it's too late for that. I suspect that once Etch is released we will see a new Perl/Tk package for Debian testing (Lenny)
regards,
Colin
-- Colin Tuckley | co...@tuckley.org | PGP/GnuPG Key Id +44(0)1903 236872 | +44(0)7799 143369 | 0x1B3045CE
A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion Q. Why is top posting bad?
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