Philosophical questions about the fontNames

[Paul Dupuis]

On 3/11/2020 6:48 PM, J. Landman Gay via use-livecode wrote:
> On 3/11/20 5:36 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode wrote:
>> Querying the fontNames includes:
>>
>> (Default)
>> (Styled Text)
>> (Menu)
>> (Text)
>> (Message)
>> (Tooltip)
>> (System)
>>
>> These are not font names, but constants the engine accepts so that we 
>> can have good-looking, HIG-savvy UIs on multiple platforms.
>>
>> But they're not font names.  They're not fonts at all.  They're 
>> engine directives.
>>
>> So should they be included in the fontNames?
>>
>> (Yes, I know I can exclude them. I've been doing this a while, I can 
>> do lots of things.  But if a newcomer wants to make a Fonts menu or 
>> list she also needs to know the filter command, and why she needs to 
>> use it to filter out things that aren't fonts. #learnability)
>>
>
> Maybe we need the "effective fontnames".
>

On 3/11/2020 6:48 PM, J. Landman Gay via use-livecode wrote:
> On 3/11/20 5:36 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode wrote:
>> Querying the fontNames includes:
>>
>> (Default)
>> (Styled Text)
>> (Menu)
>> (Text)
>> (Message)
>> (Tooltip)
>> (System)
>>
>> These are not font names, but constants the engine accepts so that we 
>> can have good-looking, HIG-savvy UIs on multiple platforms.
>>
>> But they're not font names.  They're not fonts at all.  They're 
>> engine directives.
>>
>> So should they be included in the fontNames?
>>
>> (Yes, I know I can exclude them. I've been doing this a while, I can 
>> do lots of things.  But if a newcomer wants to make a Fonts menu or 
>> list she also needs to know the filter command, and why she needs to 
>> use it to filter out things that aren't fonts. #learnability)
>>
>
> Maybe we need the "effective fontnames".
>

I filled a bug report on this back in February: 
https://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22564

Mark Waddingham declared it was not a bug but a documentation issue, so 
I filed and enhancement request: 
https://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=22569

Personally, I think the following code SHOULD work:

set the textFont of fld "X" to "(Text)"
put the effective textFont of fld "X"

And return the actual font used for (Text) on the current platform (for 
example Segue UI on Windows 10.

My goal was to be able to read somewhere like in the dictionary or user 
guide or run some code to find out what the actual font is for each of 
the "specials" on Windows and macOS.