Re: [Plplot-devel] Using Window's raw API for shapes and text

[Jim D. <ji...@di...>]

> On May 14, 2015, at 12:11 AM, Alan W. Irwin <ir...@be...> wrote:
> 
> On 2015-05-13 21:44-0500 Aaron Hexamer wrote:
> 
>> Would it be developed using the GDI?  If so, then maybe wingdi?
> 
> Hi Aaron:
> 
> To respond to your first question even though I am not
> that familiar with Windows, I did look up the article at
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Device_Interface <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Device_Interface>>, and it
> appears that is an old API that has been replaced with the Direct2D
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct2D <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct2D>> API.
> I then followed up with some google
> searching to find
> <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729481(v=vs.85).aspx <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729481(v=vs.85).aspx>>
> which implies you can use gdi for graphics and DirectWrite for text or
> Direct2D for graphics and DirectWrite for text.  Furthermore,
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectWrite <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectWrite>> says one of the features is
> 
> "Comprehensive support for Unicode, with over 20 scripts providing
> layout and rendering of every language supported in Windows."
> 
> So that superficially sounds like exactly what we want to use (in
> combination with either GDI or Direct2D), but remember my Windows
> knowledge is quite limited and this research just took me a few
> minutes of google searching so if our Windows developers have a
> different preference for the Windows API that is used to render
> unicode text, then we should adopt that preference.
> 
> @Aaron: I do think your general idea of the win+API name is better
> than winwidgets. So I would be happy to use wingdi or windirect2d
> depending on the decision about which one is used in conjunction with
> DirectWrite.
> 
> @Jim, Arjen, and Phil:
> 
> As our most active Windows developers please chime in about what
> Windows API you think we should use to render unicode text, and the
> name you would like to see for what is currently called the wingcc
> device driver.
> 

Bad news.  I searched for my old Windows driver and I have lost it to the ether.  I found some remnants, but not enough to compile.  I can a recreate it without too much difficultly.  The driver version that I had created was a merge between the X11 and the Windows GDI drivers because I wanted to have a common UI between the two platforms (e.g. menubar, crosshairs for picking points, printing).

Is it worthwhile for me to recreate this driver?  It should not interfere with the plbuf/plmetafile cleanup; in fact, digging into a driver might help in clarifying some concepts.