[Migrated from a different thread...]
On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 12:51 PM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I certainly would not mind trying it out, though. It's
just not something I can download and try on my own, as far as I can
tell. (I'm not the keeper of the ESS keys and whatnot.)
Ah but you CAN try it out on your own!!
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/i/access/solutions.html
It's right there, download the base package!! You do not need your ESS
access only an IBM ID.
All right then! Thanks for pointing that out, and sorry I didn't have
more faith.
So, I've gone and downloaded it. I seem to have installed it mostly
OK. When I try to use it, I get complaints from Windows Firewall, and
I do not have administrator access (another reason I am usually not
optimistic about my chances for being able to try things out).
Nevertheless, I am able to connect to our shop's i anyway.
So it's definitely possible to use this thing. And I did notice it has
some nice goodies like the scroll wheel working. Overall, it looks a
whole lot like iSeries Access. ACS might be a smidge slower; I can
imagine that on an underpowered PC, it could be annoyingly slow.
But here's my problem: I am very picky when it comes to fonts. I like
iSeries Access because it comes with an IBM3270 font that, at one
particular size (10x18), is what I consider attractive and readable
and just the right size. (Most of the other sizes are crap.)
The IBM3270 that comes with ACS does not look the same. I don't know
if it's the same underlying font file but just rendered differently,
or if it's using a different file. In any case, it's not as nice. And
it doesn't tell you the real size when you're choosing the size. It
just gives a single number (not WxH like iSeries Access), and that
single number sure as hell is not the point size. And there's no
preview. So just trying to find a font to use is an extremely tedious
and painful process if you don't like the default.
Right now, I don't care what bells and whistles ACS has. I can't stand
looking at it. Not when I can use iSeries Access. If someone can tell
me how to import fonts into ACS, I may give that a try. I've already
tried copying font files into
C:\Users\<myusername>\IBM\ClientSolutions\Fonts
but ACS doesn't seem to pick them up. Frankly, I'm not very hopeful,
because I suspect it's really just the way ACS renders fonts that
makes them so crappy. Fonts that I have been OK with in other
applications (such as Consolas) don't render well at all in ACS.
John Y.
midrange.com
