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A neat thing about embedded is that everything old is new again. I'll explain:
I grew up coding 8 and 16-bit machines. I often had 64KB of RAM, and 1-2MHz of CPU grunt. You had to get creative to do anything with it at all. Embedded is - while not quite as constrained typically (although in some cases, even more constrained), and in any case still pretty limited.
Ergo, old technologies can get a new lease on life because they were designed for systems with relatively anemic hardware.
Enter Windows 3.1 raster font files.
These little monsters are useful to me because there really isn't a common file format for non-antialiased raster fonts.
There are some one-offs, but they're not file formats but rather, in memory, or in flash formats, which is a bit different. While they can be written to a file, the only time you see them in files is C header and implementation files.
.FON files are as good as it gets in that arena, as far as I can tell, so I support them in my embedded graphics library.
Did you know .FONs are essentially renamed .DLLs? In either PE or NE format, and they're stored as an embedded resource. Parsing that is fun! 
It's a weird format besides. The pixels are laid out vertically rather than horizontally, for example.
Anyway, this isn't the only time I've rehabilitated old tech for embedded, but it's one of the weirder ones.
I found python code for parsing the font files, which I had to teach myself enough of to port it to C++.
mkwinfont/python/dewinfont.py at master · juanitogan/mkwinfont · GitHub[^]
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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He's the same guy (Simon Tatham) that wrote putty
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Oh wow. I didn't know that! 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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I could see the vertical format working if they are trying to race the raster from the CRT. Remember those?
spit the top row of bits across one line, advance bit mask one position, repeat.
win 1.0 was probably running on slow CPUs when that format was developed. I started with win 2.1 at 12Mhz and EGA was ground breaking. No pre-fetch cache, etc
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It wouldn't work that way because you still have to read the text left to right, top to bottom.
There's probably some reason for it, but I don't know. Curiously, it's the same format as the SSD1306 monochrome OLED display's framebuffer.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Wordle 1,151 5/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,151 5/6*
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,151 4/6*
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I see you deleted your message...
My 4th guess eliminated one of remaining two words.
Interesting, trying to guess what the masked words could be! 
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -Frederick Nietzsche
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Yes I thought youl'd put a W on the end 
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Can't think of a word which has the correct 3 letters of this Wordle, and a W at the end... I must be missing something
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -Frederick Nietzsche
modified 13-Aug-24 10:06am.
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Wordle 1,151 5/6*
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -Frederick Nietzsche
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Wordle 1,151 4/6*
⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
⬛🟨⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟨⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,151 4/6
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Wordle 1,151 4/6
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,151 3/6
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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A while back someone, not mentioning any names, left the freezer (upright type) door open and all the food thawed and had to be pitched. Was an expensive lesson!
So I designed a hardware/software solution; designed the PCB, sent off last week and got it today. Soldered, preliminary tests showed everything OK. Programmed the MCU, installed and ran a test.
The oddity; hardware and software worked first time as designed...I don't know about y'all but that happens so rarely with me.
During testing I had to let the alarm go off and it scared the SO. It is a really, really loud alarm.
A home without books is a body without soul. Marcus Tullius Cicero
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Mike Hankey wrote: A while back someone, not mentioning any names, left the freezer (upright type) door open and all the food thawed and had to be pitched
Mike, I didn't want to say this, but... it was me.
Jeremy Falcon
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Just curious, what did the chicken do?
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Crossed the road, obviously 😂
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At least it tried before Mike chucked it across 
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At least no one questioned its motives for doing so.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Mike Hankey wrote: The oddity; hardware and software worked first time as designed...I don't know about y'all but that happens so rarely with me.
I can relate to that. It happens from time to time, but it somehow gives me the impression I am overseeing something that will give me a bad surprise a time later.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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May I please inquire the means by which the gadget senses the freezer door open overly long. Temperature? Time?
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