C / C++ / MFC

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 1:24

Hi,

I have been struggling for some time with a problem experienced by a customer of our product. We have a reporting facility, which allows users to output information to a printer. We have found, on Windows 98, that when a block of text goes over a page, we are losing some text down the gap.

To print the text across pages we are using DrawTextEx, and getting the returned uiLengthDrawn to see how much fitted up to the bottom of a page, so we can continue the text from where we left off. This works perfectly on the screen, and also on NT/XP, but the uiLengthDrawn value is always wrong when going to any printer on Windows 98.

Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so, do you know of any solution?

Paul.

P.S. It's my birthday today! Big Grin | :-D

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

-- modified at 7:26 Friday 7th October, 2005

KaЯl7-Oct-05 1:54

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 1:54

! Happy Birthday!

do you use MFC? If so, maybe you could use CDC::GetTextExtent(...) to know the size of the text to draw/print? To output text I generally use CDC::TextOut(...) and don't recall having any clipping problem with this method.
(the corresponding win32 api are ::GetTextExtentPoint32 and ::TextOut)

HTH,

K.

The great error of nearly all studies of war has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics - Simone Weil
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Paul Vickery7-Oct-05 5:18

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 5:18

Thanks!

Using GetTextExtent/TextOut is all very well, but that doesn't tell me how much of my text will fit into a given rectangle. Once I've drawn my clipped text onto the bottom of my page, I need to know where in my text string I need to start drawing on the next page.

(I do use MFC BTW, but I don't think that's relevant.)

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

KaЯl7-Oct-05 5:26

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 5:26

Paul S. Vickery wrote:
GetTextExtent/TextOut is all very well, but that doesn't tell me how much of my text will fit into a given rectangle
Yes, but not directly. GetTextExtent will give you the size required to draw the given text. Knowing where you begin to write the text, you should then be able to say if the text will go outside a given rectangle or not.
IMO? you should use it before drawing. Here's a sample how I use it:

CClientDC dc(this);

CFont *pFont = CFont::FromHandle((HFONT)::GetStockObject(DEFAULT_GUI_FONT));
CFont *pOldFont = dc.SelectObject(pFont);
CRect clientRect;
CSize textSize = dc.GetTextExtent(sTitle);

GetClientRect(&clientRect);
int iWidth = clientRect.Width() - 12; // keeping 6 pixels on each side of the text

CString strNewTitle(sTitle);

while(textSize.cx > iWidth){
    // the text is too big to fit: reduce it
    sTitle = sTitle.Left(sTitle.GetLength() - 1);
    strNewTitle = sTitle + _T("...");
    textSize = dc.GetTextExtent(strNewTitle);
}

The great error of nearly all studies of war has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics - Simone Weil
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Paul Vickery7-Oct-05 5:43

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 5:43

Mmmm. That's what I was afraid I may have to resort to. It's not very efficient for huge chunks of text, which is why I didn't really want to do it this way in the first place (our reports are often very long, with large chunks of text), but I guess I can optimise it by splitting the string up and testing it using a binary method if it's over a certain length. I guess as it's only a problem on Windows 98, I'll just do it this way for that - maybe that'll teach them to use a real(-ish) OS!

Thanks for your time looking at this!

Paul.

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

KaЯl7-Oct-05 6:05

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

7-Oct-05 6:05

Yes, it is probably not very efficient, even if is it plausible it can be improved (using dichotomy seems good, making assumption on font width then on likely text length could perhaps also help).
Limiting this solution to Win98 users, by detecting the OS, could also limit the damage.

Paul S. Vickery wrote:
I guess as it's only a problem on Windows 98,
Is the problem not occuring on Win95? (I have to deal with this sh*tty OS, some of our customers still use this big bag of #$ù*#.

Also, the problem may come from the implementation of the printer driver on Win9x. Maybe an update of them, with a lot of luck...

The great error of nearly all studies of war has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics - Simone Weil
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Paul Vickery9-Oct-05 23:02

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

9-Oct-05 23:02

Just looked at source for CEditView printing, as suggested by Jack Squirrel in his reply[^], and it seems that MFC uses a similar method, by having a guess, and then adjusting the string until it best fits. They do that for all platforms (MFC doesn't use DrawTextEx anywhere as MFC pre-dates the function). Looks like that's what I'm going to have to do after all Sigh | :sigh:

, but at least our customer will be happy! Smile | :)

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

-- modified at 5:05 Monday 10th October, 2005

KaЯl9-Oct-05 23:24

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

9-Oct-05 23:24

Yep, avoiding DrawTextEx seems the good thing to do, jack's advice is the good one. I just have a look to CEditView printing too, very interesting. I learned something, there is an undocumented fucntion _AfxClipLine which may be useful sometimes.

Thanks for the feedback! Smile | :)

The great error of nearly all studies of war has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics - Simone Weil
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Jack Puppy7-Oct-05 14:33

Jack Puppy

7-Oct-05 14:33

There's code in the CEditView class that clips/fits text based on a rectangular boundary. Should be a primary function and a couple of helpers - just copy it to your project, tweak it if need be, and away you go.

"When you know you're going to eat crow, it's best to eat it while it's still warm." - Reader's Digest

Re: DrawTextEx not working properly when printing on Windows 98

Paul Vickery9-Oct-05 22:56

Re: getting the font name

9-Oct-05 22:56

Mmm. Just looked at that. It uses a method similar to the one I was avoiding Unsure | :~

by guessing how many might fit, then decreasing/increasing the length of the string until it fits best. Oh well, looks like that's the way to go. Sigh | :sigh:

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" - Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

getting the font name

FarPointer7-Oct-05 1:15

FarPointer

7-Oct-05 1:15

how do i get the font name used by the system ,or more precisely i need to fill the LOGFONT structure how do i do.

thanx in advance
Farpointer

KaЯl7-Oct-05 1:47

Re: getting the font name

7-Oct-05 1:47

You can use the ::GetStockObject function.

If using MFC, the code would be

LOGFONT logFont;
CFont *pFont = CFont::FromHandle((HFONT)::GetStockObject(SYSTEM_FONT));
// to get default font used for menus and dialog box, use DEFAULT_GUI_FONT
pFont->GetLogFont(&logFont);

HTH,

K.

The great error of nearly all studies of war has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics - Simone Weil
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

FarPointer7-Oct-05 5:54

FarPointer

7-Oct-05 5:54

thanx man i will see to it
farpointer

About CDatabase : Plz Help : Urgent

parims7-Oct-05 0:24

parims

7-Oct-05 0:24

Hello , I am new to MFC.
I am using MS Access database .
I want to get tables list using CDatabase.
Is there ant SQL Query for getting table names from Access database.

I used this code but I am getting errors.

CDatabase db;
CString sDriver = "MICROSOFT ACCESS DRIVER (*.mdb)";
CString sFile= "c:\\mydabase.mdb";

sDsn.Format("ODBC;DRIVER={%s};DSN='MyDsnName';DBQ=%s",sDriver,sFile);

db.Open(NULL,false,false,sDsn);

CRecordset recset(&db);

recset.Open(CRecordset::forwardOnly,sql,CRecordset::dynaset);

CString s=recset.GetTableName();
//int n=recset.GetRecordCount();
MessageBox(s);

========

Here I am not getting table name

Plz Give reply soon .

Praveen.

Praveen

Re: About CDatabase : Plz Help : Urgent

David Crow7-Oct-05 3:19

How to Configure Windows Update

7-Oct-05 3:19

Does the database and the DSN exist?

parims wrote:
I used this code but I am getting errors.

And what would those errors be?

parims wrote:
sDsn.Format("ODBC;DRIVER={%s};DSN='MyDsnName';DBQ=%s",sDriver,sFile);

It looks like you are trying to create both a DSN and a DSN-less connection. Why?

parims wrote:
recset.Open(CRecordset::forwardOnly,sql,CRecordset::dynaset);

What is the value of sql?

"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb

Girish6017-Oct-05 0:16

7-Oct-05 0:16

Hello Friends

Can anybody help me out in knowning how to configure Windows Update.
I want that at a stipulated time the Automatic Update should start on its own

On a fixed time

With Rgds
VC++

David Crow7-Oct-05 3:34

7-Oct-05 3:34

vcforums wrote:
Can anybody help me out in knowning how to configure Windows Update.

You mean by using the Control Panel applet:

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL wuaucpl.cpl

Or something else?

"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb

Girish6017-Oct-05 20:09

7-Oct-05 20:09

yes Mr.David

I mean by going through wuaucpl.cpl

I am setting a option for the specified time to get the updates started

but it fails to do the same

Any help on this.

With Rgds
VC++

David Crow10-Oct-05 2:56

10-Oct-05 2:56

Wuauclt.exe operates on the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update

"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb

Girish60110-Oct-05 4:23

10-Oct-05 4:23

hi
Thanks very much for been so patient for my so small query thanks once again,

but could u tell me what could be the reason if even setting these registry values,the update fails to occur,

Any suggesstion are welcome sir

With Rgds.
VC++

David Crow10-Oct-05 4:30

10-Oct-05 4:30

Could it be that no updates are available?

"One must learn from the bite of the fire to leave it alone." - Native American Proverb

Girish60110-Oct-05 5:00