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<p>Hi Milan,</p>
<p>(inline)</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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Hello Juan,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>thank you for your kind words. Live demo is always the best
showcase of some work. Though I will do better job at
narration next time. Personal target = zero filler words. :)</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>If you ask me, filler words are OK. Not everyone needs to be an
absolute pro at presentations.</p>
<p>What I think is more important, though, is to be careful with the
assertions made. Youtube keeps videos for a long time, way long
after any context is lost. Talk that suggest Cuis not having
usability, not supporting emoji, calling it "the damn thing", etc.
will be taken literally by many. The best place to be harsh is
here. Being polite is welcome, but if someone is not polite in the
mail list, they will get an appropriate answer, that will also be
part of the thread in the archive. No harm done then. But in media
where context and responses may not be available, and may reach a
wider uninformed audience, it is best to be careful with words.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>One thing that really bugs me (and I can't seem to find a
definitive answer) is the `DisplayScreen hostOSScaleFactor`
usage. Since I am designing in Figma, all pixel-sized values
(extents, insets, stroke widths, corner radii, gaps, padding,
font size, line height, etc.) have to be scaled by that
factor. Example:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>```smalltalk</div>
<div>
<div>initialize</div>
<div> | s |</div>
<div> super initialize.</div>
<div> s := DisplayScreen hostOSScaleFactor.</div>
<div> cellSize := 64 * s.</div>
<div> cornerRadius := 16 * s.</div>
<div> padding := 8 * s.</div>
<div> ...</div>
</div>
<div>```</div>
<div>This feels very, very wrong. I would expect `world scale`
(or some other approach) to do that automatically. Hm, I'll
try that.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, of course the root problem here is that we don't have any
indication of the real size of the pixels we're given. So we
should improve, but we don't have real guarantees of what "ten
pixels" really mean. For instance, set Cuis to Full Screen and the
compare `Display extent` with whatever the OS says about display
resolution, and with the phisical specs of the display. Apple made
a big mess here. And AFAIK no desktop OS has a good api to query
what's the actual size of a pixel.</p>
<p>In any case, using #hostOSScaleFactor seems reasonable. One way
is do what you did. Another one is to scale your morphs, perhaps
when opening. Another is what most Cuis tools do, call `FontFamily
defaultPointSize` to adapt size of elements to user preference.
Scaling the whole world is possible too, although we generally
prefer to size elements with `FontFamily defaultPointSize`, and
drawing a scale = 1. This gives best drawing performance.</p>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>—</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thank you for fixing the switched hyphen and dash!</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Thanks for bringing up the issue! The fix will be useful to many.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>—</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Gradients and blend modes: I found that blend modes are
available only via BitBlt, not Vector Engine. Are gradients
and blend modes something you think would be useful?</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>I tried to keep the API small and relevant, and expand it as
needs arise. I think that blend modes are not really necesary if
we handle transparency of stroke and fill colors correctly. Do we
have a use case for a "blend mode" feature?</p>
<p>WRT gradients, something similar happens. They are part of the
SVG standard, but they make everything look like it is over 20
years old and they are not very used nowadays. Is there any actual
need for them? I think having textures would be much more useful
and interesting.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>—</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am not going to comment on rasterizer output as I haven't
understood the pre-filtering paper yet.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>No real need to read the paper, although it is good to read it.
All you need is to render the same SVG file with Cuis and any
other renderer and compare.</p>
<p>The filter widh used is configurable. Edit
VectorEngineWithPluginWholePixel >>
#defaultAntiAliasingWidth, then resize the main Cuis window for
the change to take effect. Instead of 1.6, something like 4 will
be much smoother. Try 1.2. It still won't be too pixelated, but it
will be closer to what other renderers do. 1.0 will be still
crispier, but pixellation starts to be quite visible.</p>
<p>Play with the VectorEngine 'experiments' class side methods.</p>
<p>If you're really interested in this stuff, after a quick read of
the paper you can start hacking VectorEngineSmalltalk. I promise
you'll have a lot of fun.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>I think code for `spanBottom` has a bug:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>```smalltalk</div>
<div>
<div>!VectorEnginePlugin methodsFor: 'accessing' stamp: 'jmv
3/10/2021 10:53:54'!</div>
<div>spanBottom</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>self</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>primitive:
'primSpanBottom'</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>parameters:
#().</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>^(spanBottom
+ auxStrokeWidthDilatedHalf) asInteger asOop: SmallInteger.!
!</div>
</div>
<div>```</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Compare that to `spanRight`:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>```smalltalk</div>
<div>
<div>!VectorEnginePlugin methodsFor: 'accessing' stamp: 'jmv
4/6/2021 16:13:38'!</div>
<div>spanRight</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>self</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>primitive:
'primSpanRight'</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>parameters:
#().</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"Make
room not just for updated mask, but also edges (hence, +1)"</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>^(spanRight
+ auxStrokeWidthDilatedHalf + subPixelDelta) asInteger +1
asOop: SmallInteger.! !</div>
</div>
<div>```</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Bottom edge (the anti-aliased pixels) of the Dock was being
cut off, and I traced it to that method. I can't really tell
if "+1" in `spanBottom` is intentional omission or not.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Most likely this is a bug in your code. Read the 'Note:' in class
comment of BoxMorph. Read the comments at #submorphsMightProtrude.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>—</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I think that is a lot of questions for today, thank you for
taking the interest.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>A few further notes:</p>
<p>- Font subtitution: Yes. We need this. If someone volunteers to
work on this they will have by full support.</p>
<p>- Shadows and Vector Feathering. If someone is interested enough
to work on it, it could be done.</p>
<p>For other issues mentioned in your video, you may bring them up
here anytime.</p>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2f04f5df-9333-4ee6-8eee-c217e6932415@cuis.st">
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<div>—</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The main contribution of Blueprint should be non-code in
nature. Rather, to show that software revolution is happening
(code agents) and Smalltalk is the ideal vehicle for it. I put
together this short guide – <a
href="https://gist.github.com/mlajtos/e6f86323507ed30877b35f9f1f64fb37"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://gist.github.com/mlajtos/e6f86323507ed30877b35f9f1f64fb37</a> –
to bootstrap the Claude Code – Cuis bridge, so anyone can
leverage this. (Please report any issues you have with it.) I
bet real Smalltalker can do wonders with it! Think cheap
massive refactorings, automatic Smalltalk to Slang
translation, recovering borked images, easy enriching
Smalltalk class environment – new data structures, algorithms,
systems, etc.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>For hot-air balloon sky is the limit. Smalltalk with code
agent is more akin to space-faring rocket. Please adjust your
ambitions. :)</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm sure many people will have a lot of fun with this. Kudos.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Juan Vuletich
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.cuis.st">www.cuis.st</a>
github.com/jvuletich
researchgate.net/profile/Juan-Vuletich
independent.academia.edu/JuanVuletich
patents.justia.com/inventor/juan-manuel-vuletich</pre>
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