(mgp-users 00329) Thanks, a bug, and (yet another) wish list

["Barney Maccabe" <maccabe@cs.unm.edu>]

First and foremost, thanks.  I think MagicPoint will prove to be just
what I needed.  I don't understand why so few people seem to know
about this package -- I'm just glad I stumbled on it.

Second, a quick bug report.  Using "G" causes MagicPoint to seg fault.
I'm running Debian potato (aka frozen).  It did this with the package
that comes with potato (1.06a) and it does this with the version
(1.07a) I built locally.  It's not a big problem, just a minor
inconvenience.

Third, the wish list (disclaimer, I haven't looked at the CVS tree, so
some of these may be under way :).

    1) Horizontal spacing determined by percentage of the screen
       width.  This would be nice in page headings.  I tend to put a
       logo in the upper left corner and a bar under the text for the
       header.  The bar starts a fixed percentage of the screen.  I
       have to experiment with spaces to line up the start of the
       header text and the bar.  Moreover, this doesn't work when I
       change screen sizes.

    2) Vertical spacing determined by percentage of the screen height.
       This one was suggested in someone else's wish list and I just
       wanted to echo it.

    3) Make the vertical space between items larger than the inter-line
       space for wrapped lines.  I tend to write long lines (probably
       obvious from this mail) when they wrap, the inter-line gap is
       larger than the space between the end of the current item and
       the next item.  Usually, I can get around this by adding my own
       spaces after items (see #2).

    4) A postfix capability like the prefix capability.  Sometimes, I
       like to right justify the header text.  To keep it from running
       into the right edge of the screen, I have to type the same
       number of spaces after each header.

    5) Arbitrary placement of images.  This one was also suggested in
       an earlier wish list.  Frequently, I have text on the left and
       would like to squeeze an image someplace on the right side of
       a slide.  It would be nice to be able to specify a position (in
       percentage of the page) for an image.  This could probably be
       added as arguments to newimage.

    6) Layers.  As long as things are getting more complicated (what
       with putting images everywhere), it would be nice to extend the
       notion of layers for rendering (i.e., what gets rendered on top
       of what).

    7) Two columns.  Sometimes it just makes sense to have two columns
       on a slide.

Again, thanks for MagicPoint.


-- 
Arthur B. (Barney) Maccabe              http://www.cs.unm.edu/~maccabe
Computer Science Department                  email: maccabe@cs.unm.edu
The University of New Mexico                     voice: (505) 277-6504
Albuquerque, NM  87131-1386                        FAX: (505) 277-6927