Fonts
I believe that the fastest way to draw any bitmap using Euphoria
(without getting into compiled sprites) is to use EMemCopy by Michael
Bolin.
I have implemented my own font routines. Since they are so integrated
into my own code I won't bother distributing them, but I'll take a shot
at explaining how my font code works.
First off you need a generic blitting procedure, which is basically a
wrapper for EMemCopy. It needs to be able to blit part or all of a
bitmap onto another bitmap. Not too difficult.
The font file can be as simple as a BMP file. I use a BMP file where
each character is separated by a space (a column of color #00). To load
the font you simply scan through the bitmap and when you reach a blank
column make a note of the x-position and the number of columns scanned
in since the last blank (the width of the current character). So the
first x-position is the offset for the first character, the second
x-position is the offset for the second character, and so on. The bitmap
file's height is the same height as your font, so there is no need to
track the y-position of each character, it is always #00.
Now when you need to blit a character you simply blit a portion of your
total font file. The offset is equal to the x-position you tracked
during loading, the width is the width of the character (also tracked
during loading). EMemCopy does this *really* fast.
Simple, right? I hope this offers a clear alternative to using the pixel
routine. I think RDS included it for the sake of being complete, but it
has *no* place in any graphics library that even wants to dream of
speed.
John.
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