[Lazarus] New Help System & Viewer - sneak preview

Mon Oct 5 09:19:01 CEST 2009

2009/10/4 Marco van de Voort <marcov at stack.nl>:
>
> So just starting with anything random new is better? It will again have its
> own flaws. And more in the beginning.
>
> If you really care so much, try to notify the synt package author, and work
> towards a solution instead of playing in fixed fonts. (knowing that there is
> no real cross-platform font support)

I simply stated that the diagrams don't look as good as they could be.
And no, I have no interest in debugging the synt package - I don't
even know the language etc. such packages are written in.

I simply stated that Unicode has specific characters to do such simple
drawings, so no external packages would have been required. ASCII art
has been around as long as computers have, so NO, that is not
something new. There is a whole Unicode Block of characters which is
ideal for such simple diagrams. And as a test I created a mockup of
one section using OpenOffice and drew the diagrams with no effect
using those unicode drawing characters.

If you are unsure of what I am talking about, see the attached Unicode
demo text file. You can view it with Lazarus IDE, gEdit etc... Any
text editor that correctly supports Unicode. At the bottom of the file
are a few box drawing characters including a FPC syntax diagram
recreated using those block drawing characters. I could even have used
condensed text characters (no extra font needed) to make the text
portions smaller.

-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -

_______________________________________________
fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/
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UTF-8 encoded sample plain-text file
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Markus Kuhn [ˈmaʳkʊs kuːn] <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/> — 2002-07-25

The ASCII compatible UTF-8 encoding used in this plain-text file
is defined in Unicode, ISO 10646-1, and RFC 2279.

Using Unicode/UTF-8, you can write in emails and source code things such as

Mathematics and sciences:

  ∮ E⋅da = Q,  n → ∞, ∑ f(i) = ∏ g(i),      ⎧⎡⎛┌─────┐⎞⎤⎫
                                            ⎪⎢⎜│a²+b³ ⎟⎥⎪
  ∀x∈ℝ: ⌈x⌉ = −⌊−x⌋, α ∧ ¬β = ¬(¬α ∨ β),    ⎪⎢⎜│───── ⎟⎥⎪
                                            ⎪⎢⎜⎷ c₈   ⎟⎥⎪
  ℕ ⊆ ℕ₀ ⊂ ℤ ⊂ ℚ ⊂ ℝ ⊂ ℂ,                   ⎨⎢⎜       ⎟⎥⎬
                                            ⎪⎢⎜ ∞     ⎟⎥⎪
  ⊥ < a ≠ b ≡ c ≤ d ≪ ⊤ ⇒ (⟦A⟧ ⇔ ⟪B⟫),      ⎪⎢⎜ ⎲     ⎟⎥⎪
                                            ⎪⎢⎜ ⎳aⁱ-bⁱ⎟⎥⎪
  2H₂ + O₂ ⇌ 2H₂O, R = 4.7 kΩ, ⌀ 200 mm     ⎩⎣⎝i=1    ⎠⎦⎭

Linguistics and dictionaries:

  ði ıntəˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtık əsoʊsiˈeıʃn
  Y [ˈʏpsilɔn], Yen [jɛn], Yoga [ˈjoːgɑ]

APL:

  ((V⍳V)=⍳⍴V)/V←,V    ⌷←⍳→⍴∆∇⊃‾⍎⍕⌈

Nicer typography in plain text files:

  ╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ‘single’ and “double” quotes         ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • Curly apostrophes: “We’ve been here” ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • Latin-1 apostrophe and accents: '´`  ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ‚deutsche‘ „Anführungszeichen“       ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • †, ‡, ‰, •, 3–4, —, −5/+5, ™, …      ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ASCII safety test: 1lI|, 0OD, 8B     ║
  ║                      ╭─────────╮         ║
  ║   • the euro symbol: │ 14.95 € │         ║
  ║                      ╰─────────╯         ║
  ╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

Combining characters:

  STARGΛ̊TE SG-1, a = v̇ = r̈, a⃑ ⊥ b⃑

Greek (in Polytonic):

  The Greek anthem:

  Σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν κόψη
  τοῦ σπαθιοῦ τὴν τρομερή,
  σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν ὄψη
  ποὺ μὲ βία μετράει τὴ γῆ.

  ᾿Απ᾿ τὰ κόκκαλα βγαλμένη
  τῶν ῾Ελλήνων τὰ ἱερά
  καὶ σὰν πρῶτα ἀνδρειωμένη
  χαῖρε, ὦ χαῖρε, ᾿Ελευθεριά!

  From a speech of Demosthenes in the 4th century BC:

  Οὐχὶ ταὐτὰ παρίσταταί μοι γιγνώσκειν, ὦ ἄνδρες ᾿Αθηναῖοι,
  ὅταν τ᾿ εἰς τὰ πράγματα ἀποβλέψω καὶ ὅταν πρὸς τοὺς
  λόγους οὓς ἀκούω· τοὺς μὲν γὰρ λόγους περὶ τοῦ
  τιμωρήσασθαι Φίλιππον ὁρῶ γιγνομένους, τὰ δὲ πράγματ᾿
  εἰς τοῦτο προήκοντα,  ὥσθ᾿ ὅπως μὴ πεισόμεθ᾿ αὐτοὶ
  πρότερον κακῶς σκέψασθαι δέον. οὐδέν οὖν ἄλλο μοι δοκοῦσιν
  οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγοντες ἢ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, περὶ ἧς βουλεύεσθαι,
  οὐχὶ τὴν οὖσαν παριστάντες ὑμῖν ἁμαρτάνειν. ἐγὼ δέ, ὅτι μέν
  ποτ᾿ ἐξῆν τῇ πόλει καὶ τὰ αὑτῆς ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς καὶ Φίλιππον
  τιμωρήσασθαι, καὶ μάλ᾿ ἀκριβῶς οἶδα· ἐπ᾿ ἐμοῦ γάρ, οὐ πάλαι
  γέγονεν ταῦτ᾿ ἀμφότερα· νῦν μέντοι πέπεισμαι τοῦθ᾿ ἱκανὸν
  προλαβεῖν ἡμῖν εἶναι τὴν πρώτην, ὅπως τοὺς συμμάχους
  σώσομεν. ἐὰν γὰρ τοῦτο βεβαίως ὑπάρξῃ, τότε καὶ περὶ τοῦ
  τίνα τιμωρήσεταί τις καὶ ὃν τρόπον ἐξέσται σκοπεῖν· πρὶν δὲ
  τὴν ἀρχὴν ὀρθῶς ὑποθέσθαι, μάταιον ἡγοῦμαι περὶ τῆς
  τελευτῆς ὁντινοῦν ποιεῖσθαι λόγον.

  Δημοσθένους, Γ´ ᾿Ολυνθιακὸς

Georgian:

  From a Unicode conference invitation:

  გთხოვთ ახლავე გაიაროთ რეგისტრაცია Unicode-ის მეათე საერთაშორისო
  კონფერენციაზე დასასწრებად, რომელიც გაიმართება 10-12 მარტს,
  ქ. მაინცში, გერმანიაში. კონფერენცია შეჰკრებს ერთად მსოფლიოს
  ექსპერტებს ისეთ დარგებში როგორიცაა ინტერნეტი და Unicode-ი,
  ინტერნაციონალიზაცია და ლოკალიზაცია, Unicode-ის გამოყენება
  ოპერაციულ სისტემებსა, და გამოყენებით პროგრამებში, შრიფტებში,
  ტექსტების დამუშავებასა და მრავალენოვან კომპიუტერულ სისტემებში.

Russian:

  From a Unicode conference invitation:

  Зарегистрируйтесь сейчас на Десятую Международную Конференцию по
  Unicode, которая состоится 10-12 марта 1997 года в Майнце в Германии.
  Конференция соберет широкий круг экспертов по  вопросам глобального
  Интернета и Unicode, локализации и интернационализации, воплощению и
  применению Unicode в различных операционных системах и программных
  приложениях, шрифтах, верстке и многоязычных компьютерных системах.

Thai (UCS Level 2):

  Excerpt from a poetry on The Romance of The Three Kingdoms (a Chinese
  classic 'San Gua'):

  [----------------------------|------------------------]
    ๏ แผ่นดินฮั่นเสื่อมโทรมแสนสังเวช  พระปกเกศกองบู๊กู้ขึ้นใหม่
  สิบสองกษัตริย์ก่อนหน้าแลถัดไป       สององค์ไซร้โง่เขลาเบาปัญญา
    ทรงนับถือขันทีเป็นที่พึ่ง           บ้านเมืองจึงวิปริตเป็นนักหนา
  โฮจิ๋นเรียกทัพทั่วหัวเมืองมา         หมายจะฆ่ามดชั่วตัวสำคัญ
    เหมือนขับไสไล่เสือจากเคหา      รับหมาป่าเข้ามาเลยอาสัญ
  ฝ่ายอ้องอุ้นยุแยกให้แตกกัน          ใช้สาวนั้นเป็นชนวนชื่นชวนใจ
    พลันลิฉุยกุยกีกลับก่อเหตุ          ช่างอาเพศจริงหนาฟ้าร้องไห้
  ต้องรบราฆ่าฟันจนบรรลัย           ฤๅหาใครค้ำชูกู้บรรลังก์ ฯ

  (The above is a two-column text. If combining characters are handled
  correctly, the lines of the second column should be aligned with the
  | character above.)

Ethiopian:

  Proverbs in the Amharic language:

  ሰማይ አይታረስ ንጉሥ አይከሰስ።
  ብላ ካለኝ እንደአባቴ በቆመጠኝ።
  ጌጥ ያለቤቱ ቁምጥና ነው።
  ደሀ በሕልሙ ቅቤ ባይጠጣ ንጣት በገደለው።
  የአፍ ወለምታ በቅቤ አይታሽም።
  አይጥ በበላ ዳዋ ተመታ።
  ሲተረጉሙ ይደረግሙ።
  ቀስ በቀስ፥ ዕንቁላል በእግሩ ይሄዳል።
  ድር ቢያብር አንበሳ ያስር።
  ሰው እንደቤቱ እንጅ እንደ ጉረቤቱ አይተዳደርም።
  እግዜር የከፈተውን ጉሮሮ ሳይዘጋው አይድርም።
  የጎረቤት ሌባ፥ ቢያዩት ይስቅ ባያዩት ያጠልቅ።
  ሥራ ከመፍታት ልጄን ላፋታት።
  ዓባይ ማደሪያ የለው፥ ግንድ ይዞ ይዞራል።
  የእስላም አገሩ መካ የአሞራ አገሩ ዋርካ።
  ተንጋሎ ቢተፉ ተመልሶ ባፉ።
  ወዳጅህ ማር ቢሆን ጨርስህ አትላሰው።
  እግርህን በፍራሽህ ልክ ዘርጋ።

Runes:

  ᚻᛖ ᚳᚹᚫᚦ ᚦᚫᛏ ᚻᛖ ᛒᚢᛞᛖ ᚩᚾ ᚦᚫᛗ ᛚᚪᚾᛞᛖ ᚾᚩᚱᚦᚹᛖᚪᚱᛞᚢᛗ ᚹᛁᚦ ᚦᚪ ᚹᛖᛥᚫ

  (Old English, which transcribed into Latin reads 'He cwaeth that he
  bude thaem lande northweardum with tha Westsae.' and means 'He said
  that he lived in the northern land near the Western Sea.')

Braille:

  ⡌⠁⠧⠑ ⠼⠁⠒  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹⠰⠎ ⡣⠕⠌

  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠒ ⠞⠕ ⠃⠑⠛⠔ ⠺⠊⠹⠲ ⡹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠝⠕ ⠙⠳⠃⠞
  ⠱⠁⠞⠑⠧⠻ ⠁⠃⠳⠞ ⠹⠁⠞⠲ ⡹⠑ ⠗⠑⠛⠊⠌⠻ ⠕⠋ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠃⠥⠗⠊⠁⠇ ⠺⠁⠎
  ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠃⠹ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠛⠹⠍⠁⠝⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠅⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠥⠝⠙⠻⠞⠁⠅⠻⠂
  ⠁⠝⠙ ⠹⠑ ⠡⠊⠑⠋ ⠍⠳⠗⠝⠻⠲ ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑ ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠊⠞⠲ ⡁⠝⠙
  ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑⠰⠎ ⠝⠁⠍⠑ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠛⠕⠕⠙ ⠥⠏⠕⠝ ⠰⡡⠁⠝⠛⠑⠂ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠁⠝⠹⠹⠔⠛ ⠙⠑
  ⠡⠕⠎⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠏⠥⠞ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠙⠁⠝⠙ ⠞⠕⠲

  ⡕⠇⠙ ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

  ⡍⠔⠙⠖ ⡊ ⠙⠕⠝⠰⠞ ⠍⠑⠁⠝ ⠞⠕ ⠎⠁⠹ ⠹⠁⠞ ⡊ ⠅⠝⠪⠂ ⠕⠋ ⠍⠹
  ⠪⠝ ⠅⠝⠪⠇⠫⠛⠑⠂ ⠱⠁⠞ ⠹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠏⠜⠞⠊⠊⠥⠇⠜⠇⠹ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠃⠳⠞
  ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲ ⡊ ⠍⠊⠣⠞ ⠙⠁⠧⠑ ⠃⠑⠲ ⠔⠊⠇⠔⠫⠂ ⠍⠹⠎⠑⠇⠋⠂ ⠞⠕
  ⠗⠑⠛⠜⠙ ⠁ ⠊⠕⠋⠋⠔⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇ ⠁⠎ ⠹⠑ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠑⠌ ⠏⠊⠑⠊⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠊⠗⠕⠝⠍⠕⠝⠛⠻⠹
  ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠞⠗⠁⠙⠑⠲ ⡃⠥⠞ ⠹⠑ ⠺⠊⠎⠙⠕⠍ ⠕⠋ ⠳⠗ ⠁⠝⠊⠑⠌⠕⠗⠎
  ⠊⠎ ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠎⠊⠍⠊⠇⠑⠆ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠍⠹ ⠥⠝⠙⠁⠇⠇⠪⠫ ⠙⠁⠝⠙⠎
  ⠩⠁⠇⠇ ⠝⠕⠞ ⠙⠊⠌⠥⠗⠃ ⠊⠞⠂ ⠕⠗ ⠹⠑ ⡊⠳⠝⠞⠗⠹⠰⠎ ⠙⠕⠝⠑ ⠋⠕⠗⠲ ⡹⠳
  ⠺⠊⠇⠇ ⠹⠻⠑⠋⠕⠗⠑ ⠏⠻⠍⠊⠞ ⠍⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠗⠑⠏⠑⠁⠞⠂ ⠑⠍⠏⠙⠁⠞⠊⠊⠁⠇⠇⠹⠂ ⠹⠁⠞
  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

  (The first couple of paragraphs of "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens)

Compact font selection example text:

  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ /0123456789
  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz £©µÀÆÖÞßéöÿ
  –—‘“”„†•…‰™œŠŸž€ ΑΒΓΔΩαβγδω АБВГДабвгд
  ∀∂∈ℝ∧∪≡∞ ↑↗↨↻⇣ ┐┼╔╘░►☺♀ ﬁ�⑀₂ἠḂӥẄɐː⍎אԱა

Greetings in various languages:

  Hello world, Καλημέρα κόσμε, コンニチハ

Box drawing alignment tests:                                          █
                                                                      ▉
  ╔══╦══╗  ┌──┬──┐  ╭──┬──╮  ╭──┬──╮  ┏━━┳━━┓  ┎┒┏┑   ╷  ╻ ┏┯┓ ┌┰┐    ▊ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
  ║┌─╨─┐║  │╔═╧═╗│  │╒═╪═╕│  │╓─╁─╖│  ┃┌─╂─┐┃  ┗╃╄┙  ╶┼╴╺╋╸┠┼┨ ┝╋┥    ▋ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
  ║│╲ ╱│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╿ │┃  ┍╅╆┓   ╵  ╹ ┗┷┛ └┸┘    ▌ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
  ╠╡ ╳ ╞╣  ├╢   ╟┤  ├┼─┼─┼┤  ├╫─╂─╫┤  ┣┿╾┼╼┿┫  ┕┛┖┚     ┌┄┄┐ ╎ ┏┅┅┓ ┋ ▍ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
  ║│╱ ╲│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╽ │┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▎
  ║└─╥─┘║  │╚═╤═╝│  │╘═╪═╛│  │╙─╀─╜│  ┃└─╂─┘┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▏
  ╚══╩══╝  └──┴──┘  ╰──┴──╯  ╰──┴──╯  ┗━━┻━━┛  ▗▄▖▛▀▜   └╌╌┘ ╎ ┗╍╍┛ ┋  ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█
                                               ▝▀▘▙▄▟

Free Pascal Reference manual example:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Produceral types

▸▸─── procedural type ─┬─ function header ──┬─┬───────────────┬─┬────────────────────┬▸◂
                       └─ procedure header──┘ └─ of ─ object ─┘ └─;─ call modifiers ─┘

▸▸─── function header ─ function ─ formal parameter list ──:── result type ───────────▸◂

▸▸─── procedure header ─ procedure ─ formal parameter list ───────────────────────────▸◂

▸▸─── call modifiers ─┬─ register ─┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────▸◂
                      ├─ cdecl ────┤
                      ├─ pascal ───┤
                      ├─ stdcall ──┤
                      ├─ safecall ─┤
                      └─ inline ───┘