how to use kdialog --font ?

Tue Oct 27 11:02:44 GMT 2015

On Tuesday 27 Oct 2015 10:03:06 Duncan wrote:
> ianseeks posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2015 08:05:49 +0000 as excerpted:
> > On Monday 26 Oct 2015 20:31:48 J. Leslie Turriff wrote:
> >> I want to use kdialog to display a table of values, and to make
> >> the output columns line up, the simplest way is to display the data
> >> with a monospace font, e.g. DejaVu Sans Mono.  kdialog --help-qt
> >> shows option -fn <name> or --font <name>, but does not describe the
> >> format of the <name> string.
> 
> [snip the details as not relevant to this particular subthread]
> 
> > I've just done a "kdialog ?" and there is no reference to a "--font"
> > and thats using this version
> > Qt: 4.8.7
> > KDE Development Platform: 4.14.12
> > KDialog: 1.0
> 
> The two of you are using two different sets of help output.
> 
> For most kde executables, <command> --help (or <command> ?, which was new
> to me) will output help text in two sections.  The first section is
> generic parameters such as --help itself, the section is command-specific
> options, followed by command specific arguments.
> 
> You (ianseeks) were looking at the ?/--help output and apparently focused
> on the (command specific) Options section, which, you correctly noted,
> contains no --font or similar option.

seemed the sensible thing to do at time. :o)

> However, the OP (J Leslie Turrif) specifically mentioned help output
> found under --help-qt, which is qt-specific help that generally applies
> to all qt-based programs, pretty much regardless of what they actually
> are.  Similarly, --help-kde is kde-specific help that generally applies
> to all kde-based programs, pretty much regardless of what they are.
> --help-all should list all the above, the generic options, followed by
> the command specific options, followed by the qt options, then the kde
> options, and finally the command arguments.
> 
> And it can be observed that --help-qt (as well as --help-kde and
> --help-all) is indeed listed under the generic options (at least for my
> kdialog 1.0, on kde 4.14.13, on qt 4.8.7) section when invoking
> kdialog --help or kdialog ? .

perhaps the qt/kde options should be listed at the same time something along 
the lines of "man rpm"  i.e. get all the options into the open

thanks for the enlightenment.

> And, --help-qt (and the qt section under --help-all) does indeed list
> both --fn and --font, as synonyms for each other.
> 
> 
> So... the --fn/--font option is a generic qt option, that should work
> with most qt-based apps, and is actually a generic option included due to
> the app being qt-based, even if in some cases --fn/--font won't apply, or
> will be overridden by something else.
> 
> 
> So far so good.  But I don't have an answer to the original question,
> because while I've occasionally used some other qt option and had it
> work, I've never needed to use that one.  Also, kdialog is a rather
> unusual application, and I'm not /entirely/ sure it honors that
> particular qt option at all.
> 
> What I could suggest as the way I'd try figuring it out here is this.
> 
> Try using the --fn/--font option with other more traditional qt apps.  In
> particular, if you have any non-kde qt-based apps (based on the same qt
> major version, right now qt4 and qt5 based apps are out, and a test on a
> qt5 app while kdialog is based on qt4, or the reverse, a qt5 based kdialog
> with a test on a qt4 app, won't be particularly helpful), try using the --
> font option on them, and see if you can get it to work there, where it's
> much more likely not to be overridden.
> 
> Once you get it working there, you'll know the font name pattern to use,
> and can try the same thing on kdialog.
> 
> It may also be that in the kde environment, kde overrides the normal qt
> font options, and may override it here, as well.  So it may also be worth
> trying that qt-based non-kde app in a non-kde desktop environment,
> perhaps failsafe, if your distro provides such a login option, or gnome
> or one of the gtk-based desktop environments.  Again, if you get it
> working there, you can try the font name pattern that worked there under
> kde to see if it works under kde as well.
> 
> 
> Meanwhile, my google-foo might be a bit better than yours.  Searching
> on...
> 
> qt command line option "--font"
> 
> ... (the quotes around font being critical), the first hit is to a page
> of qt 4.8 embedded documentation, with command-line-options down the
> page.  Here's a direct link:
> 
> http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/qt-embedded-running.html#command-line-options
> 
> The first option listed there is -fn <font>.  It says "The font should be
> specified using an X logical font description."  However, that doesn't
> tell me a whole lot.  The example isn't a whole lot better in that it
> doesn't show size or weight or anything, but here it is:
> 
> <command> -fn helvetica
> 
> Two things to note about that:
> 
> 1) -fn not --fn.  So try it with just one -.  It might just work, or
> again, it may be that kde adapted that and it really is two -- under kde.
> Trying it both ways is the only way to know for sure.
> 
> 2) If you have the helvetica font installed, you can try the example
> verbatim, and if it works, go from there.  If it doesn't, again, try a
> different qt-based app, to be sure that kdialog isn't overriding it for
> some reason.
> 
> 
> Another hit, this one in the documentation for pyqt, adds an interesting
> caveat:
> 
> -fn or -font font, defines the application font. The font should be
> specified using an X logical font description. Note that this option is
> ignored when Qt is built with fontconfig support enabled.
> 
> It may be that your qt and/or kde is built with fontconfig support, and
> that's what's overriding the option.  I believe you'd need to check your
> distro information and/or package deps to be sure.
> 
> There's likely more examples and information using the google above...
> 
> 
> That is of course assuming nobody else posts with more helpful
> information that can shortcut the process.  I'd give it a few days before
> giving up on that, as sometimes, people don't get to the list every day,
> but will reply in 2-3 or sometimes within the week, if that's the
> frequency at which they check it.

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