Re: Font metrics in AFPDS?

On 18-Mar-2015 17:42 -0500, James H. H. Lampert wrote:

<<SNIP>> determine the set-width of a
character string, in the font in which it is presented.

There are numerous fields that have too little space on the page to
accommodate the full field length, in which I'm applying variable
horizontal scaling, based on the RPG %LEN(%TRIM()) of the field.
They'd work a lot better if I could calculate the horizontal scaling
from the actual set-width.

One of those fields, in addition, is one where it would be nice if,
for values that take up less than the available space even without
horizontal scaling, I could accurately center the value (which of
course can't be done without knowing the set-width.

Surely I'm not the first one in this position?

FWiW, I recall very clearly that there was at least one prior topic [maybe a language-specific forum] here discussing how one might determine the width of a given string using a proportional font. I recall mostly, because there was a second discussion within a year or two for which I had thought to direct the author to the prior topic that had offered information about obtaining the width information for a string [from an effective API call], but upon re-reading the original discussion I could not find any such implication... as if perhaps I had imagined the possibility :-( or perhaps I had followed up on some tidbits offered whereupon I stumbled-on but did not post any followup reply about what I had found.?.? I feel somewhat less daft for having thought that there was an API, after finding a comment in a reply to "Vern... I had a vague recollection of an API that would retrieve the font widths also." from <http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201309/msg00235.html>


<https://www.google.com/search?q=%22width%22+%22font%22+%22variable%22+site%3Aarchive.midrange.com>

<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201309/msg00221.html>
Centering with proportional font

<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200308/msg00857.html>
center/line wrap w/variable width fonts

AFP Variable Width Font Text Alignment -- RPG400-L (unanswered)

<http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/200605/msg00071.html>
Print overlay -- RPG400-L

From that search, another topic that may be of interest, if changing the font to achieve desired results:
<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200907/msg00853.html>

Within the thread of the first message linked above [under the web search] are the following two messages which look at least somewhat promising with regard to an API-like approach:

<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201309/msg00253.html>
"... QGYOLAFP might be the API you were thinking of to interrogate font
widths. Never used it myself, but format HPCS0100 might be the one.
<http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fapis%2Fqgyolafp.htm>"

<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201309/msg00236.html>
"...
Looking at the Java
documentation the getLayout method of TextMeasurer returns a TextLayout
object. And TextLayout has a getBounds method that returns a Rectangle2D.

<http://docs.oracle.com/javame/config/cdc/opt-pkgs/api/agui/jsr209/java/awt/font/TextLayout.html>
<http://docs.oracle.com/javame/config/cdc/opt-pkgs/api/agui/jsr209/java/awt/font/TextMeasurer.html>"