Re: [XaraXtreme-dev] Current/default font

[Alex Bligh <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Martin Wuerthner wrote:
> >  There should be no danger whatsoever in changing the current
> > attributes to ones that make sense for the user's machine.  The only
> > issue I can really come up with is if someone creates a template for a
> > specific purpose that has the current font set to something explicit, if
> > the current font is silently changed because you don't have the correct
> > one installed then text you create will not be in the "correct" font.
>
> Well, if someone creates a template for his own use and specifically 
> sets a certain current font and really cares about what this current 
> font is, then would you not expect that person to use a font that is 
> actually installed?  And if he moves the template to a different
> machine and continues using it there and sees a different font come up 
> when he selects the text tool, what is the problem? Either he will not 
> care, or he will thing "hang on, I wanted the current font after 
> loading the document to be XYZ", at which point he will try to select 
> it from the font menu and realize that the font is not installed on 
> this machine. So, I do not see a possible case where this will lead to 
> user dissatisfaction or the user thinking that the program is wrong.
>
> And even if it did, the advantages of changing the current font are so 
> tremendous that would easily outweigh even more important 
> disadvantages than this rather exotic scenario.

We discussed this specifically in the meeting, after discussing
it ad-nauseam on this list before. The key in the solution is in that
the conversion is only done if the font is not used in the design.
If you want an empty design where the text font sticks, simply
create a no-colour fullstop and stick it on the page. This is
the /unlikely/ scenario. The likely scenario is you just happen
to have Vera because you were on Linux, or Arial because you
were on Windows, and were trying to control something different
(e.g. the page size, the colours etc.). The risk of always taking
the (saved) current font where it is unused, is someone will naively
type text into it, set graphics around it, which will be
in an uninstalled font, and give it back to its original author,
whereupon it will be formatted wrong.

I really do not think we should revisit this decisison.

Alex