Re: Pictogram specification

On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 2:34 PM, David Glaude <[email protected]> wrote:
> Le 1 janv. 2013 18:48, "Ethan Dicks" <[email protected]> a écrit :
>> > Le 31 déc. 2012 23:40, "Ethan Dicks" <[email protected]> a écrit :
>> >> Is there any thought to implementing "virtual pictograms" inside of a
>> >> driver?
>
> Oups. Was it the '°' you were looking for and that was at different
> locations on various LCD. AFAIK it the driver job to do the right remapping
> and if some character are missing it should use a similar looking thing like
> 'o'.

That was one issue.  Displays with Japanese Katakana glyphs in the extended
ASCII range often have a glyph that resembles a degree symbol (it's a
pronunciation modifier to turn 'h' sounds into 'p' sounds) but LCD modules with
European glyphs in the extended ASCII range don't have that exact symbol.

> I was talking about a one character glift that represent 'F°' And that would
> likely not be present in any character set and only possible with a custom
> character (icon).

It's not common, I admit, but I did talk about it some time ago in...

http://lists.omnipotent.net/pipermail/lcdproc/2007-May/011739.html

The symbols '°F'  and '°C' in the following picture are part of the
ROM-based character set for this HD44780 VFD (sold with a
PIC-based backpack as a serial-interfaced display by Matrix Orbital).
They are not custom RAM-based characters.

http://www.penguincentral.com/retrocomputing/lcdproc/pix/lcdmetar-1chartemp-sm.jpg

I don't think they are common, but they do exist on their own.

>> > What I can imagine is a 20x2 LCD that is advertised (by the driver) as a
>> > 16x2 where 4x2 would be used to create simulated pictogram.
>>
>> This is more like what I was thinking of but you've come up with a better
>> way of visualizing it.  I'd even be happy with a 2x2 simulated pictogram
>> on a 16x2.
>
>> I should probably mention that unlike an LCD or VFD with "real"
>> pictograms, this virtual pictogram on a graphical display could
>> be implemented not as a set of non-overlapping images but a
>> single "canvas"...
>
> You raise an interesting question of overlapping (or not) pictogram. I can
> imagine physical pictogram that are mutually exclusive because either on the
> same location (sharing parts) or by design (opposite meaning and no way to
> adresse both).

Sure.  I think I've seen "composite" pictograms that consist of several
adjacent elements that are lit or not lit to communicate different statuses.

-ethan