Print Card is broken in Linux because of resolution dependence

[Richard Gaskin]

Peter Alcibiades wrote:

> I don't agree that you have to fix resolution independence to fix this one.
>
> Consider the case of open office.  If you print a 12 point times document,
> it prints the same regardless of your screen resolution. Consider GIMP.  You
> print a graphic with a certain pixel dimension, it comes out the same on
> paper regardless of how large or small it was on screen due to your screen
> resolution.  The problem Rev has is that it is somehow using the screen
> layout to set the print size.  This is what its doing wrong and what it is
> unique in doing.
>
> It can and should fix print card without fixing resolution independence.

It may be that there's an issue with how Rev interfaces with print 
drivers on Linux, and that's more more reason your valuable notes should 
be posted to the RQCC.

It may also be worth noting this line from the old MetaCard Read Me:

   MetaCard is very good at exposing bugs in print drivers.

While the wording may seem arrogant, and it may not be relevant in this 
case, in my experience on Windows I've found 99+% of my print issues 
resolved my making sure my customers are using the most recent build of 
whatever driver they're having an issue with.

This may not be relevant in your case, but it seems worth 
double-checking if only to rule out a possible cause.

Given that the Rev engine was born on Unix and lived there for many 
years exclusively before being ported to Windows and eventually to Mac 
OS, I suspect any issues with display or printing are unique to the more 
recent addition of GTK support.

While undesirable for shipping products, I wonder if it may be helpful 
for diagnostics to set the lookAndFeel to "Motif", hopefully decoupling 
the engine's rendering from its default use of GTK and thereby reverting 
to its original rendering scheme.

Whether or not this improves your printed output, it would be good to 
include those results with your RQCC submission, as it will likely help 
narrow down the search for the root cause.


> Then, there are two things it can do to fix the IDE display, also without
> having to fix resolution independence.  The first is, make the dictionary
> display in a browser.  This way you can enlarge the font at will.

Done:
<http://docs.runrev.com/>


> Where is the source code for revPrintField?  I'll take a look at it.  Its
> probably way beyond my intellectual energies at this point, but you never
> know.  It can't be worse than what I am ending up committed to doing in
> awk....

The source for RevPrint field and its related functions and commands is 
in a backscript from a button named "revPrintBack" in group 
"revLibraries" of stack "revLibrary.rev".

The code there seems a bit convoluted at first because it's fairly well 
factored, making use of about three dozen other handlers to do what it 
needs to do.

But I think you could start by altering the code in the revSetPrintFont 
command to set the print stack's default text size, and then hunt for 
the place where the text is put into the field for printing to adjust 
its htmlText before going to the printer.

Mark Smith, Dick Kreisel, and Malte Brill all tossed around some 
valuable code for increasing and decreasing the textSize of field 
contents - here's what I recall being the fastest and most complete of 
the series, by Malte:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2005-July/061749.html>

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv