Re: [Tuxpaint-devel] Using libtextwrap in Tux Paint Config.

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

On Mon, Nov 15, 2021 at 12:09:19PM +0300, Benson Muite wrote:
<snip>
> Could Pango be used for layouts since it supports a variety of
> different languages?

Well, I get the feeling we can't really combine Pango and FLTK.
However, my only experience with Pango is via SDL_Pango, within
Tux Paint itself.  (And, it turns out, we only got as far as
using it for the UI -- button labels, prompts, and help text --
and not the Text and Label tools.)


> Firefox has its own layout engine [1], which
> minimizes dependencies. libtextwrap is well written and could also
> be updated to use only unicode dependencies so it builds easily on a
> variety of operating systems? Another option might be
> libunibreak[2].

Oh, libunibreak might be useful.  As with libtextwrap, I see it's
available in Ubuntu 20.04.  However, before I make any more tectonic
shifts in the Tux Paint Config. codebase, I'd better make sure it's
available everywhere. :)

I'm encouraged to see the code is still maintained (last commit was
one week ago), and I'll play with it a little and see whether it
seems to do what we need.


> SDL_Pango[3] has not had many updates, but could also be migrated to
> SDL2. Happy to look further into these options.

I believe Pere has been maintaining SDL_Pango for use with SDL2, which
is the basis of the Android port of Tux Paint (not Tux Paint Config.)

When I first decided we needed a user-friendly configuration tool for
parents and teachers (rather than expecting them to hand edit a config
text file), I actually thought it might be cool to use SDL and invent
our own GUI for it! :-)

On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't do that to myself.  On the other
hand, I've been a bit disappointed with FLTK. :-/  (That said, I
appreciate that TPC exists at all, and am thankful to my friends who
wrote the core of the code, 19 years ago this month!)

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer