font heights

1)
I had assumed that the units returned from dc.getFontHeight would be pixels but it is not stated in the documentation.
Using Gfx.FONT_NUMBER_MEDIUM and a Fenix 3 HR - i get a height of 60 from getFontHeight.

When i draw a few numbers on the screen, and add a scale drawn with dc.drawLine for reference, it does not appear to be any more than 40px high. Since it is a number font, i am not sure descenders is an issue.

So this makes me wonder if the units are perhaps 'points' or something. Maybe i need to scale by 150 DPI?

I searched and have not found any mention of DPI (dots per inch), which i think would be used to convert from points to pixels.

My objective is to position graphics knowing the text dimensions - but i am wasting a lot of space due what appears to be 60 rather than 40 from getFontHeight.
This is the worst example i have found so far - other watches and fonts perhaps not so far out.

2)
I find it hard to find things in the documentation. The API docs have a nice search tool. This forum has a search tool that helps sometimes. Then there are all the 'programmers guide' pages which are not searchable as far as i can tell. So there is good info in there, however i find it can be hard to find. And then the samples are good to, so i have a full text search of all the samples going pretty often too.
It would be most excellent if all this documentation were combined into a PDF of CHM(microsoft help file). Then you could just do simple text search of all the sources.

Is there an easier way that i am missing?

Coleman.Apps over 8 years ago

Hey,

Thanks for putting together something that works well for you. We don't have any problem with you reorganizing the information we have to better suit your needs. There are several updates on the way for documentation. We know that some of our guides and docs haven't always been the easiest to use. The first thing you are going to see is some revamped API Docs. You can get a preview with the 2.3.0 Beta. We have worked on sprucing them up a little more since then. After that we plan to make the rest of our docs much easier to use including a better flow and more logically placed information. Of course, what is logical and easy is somewhat subjective, but we are trying to revamp things based on what we see the biggest sticking points are in the forums. We love the feedback and are excited to continue to make it better.

Thanks,
-Coleman

OttawaDeveloper over 8 years ago

pdf clone of Connect IQ API documentation

Hey good to hear you have done improvements in the docs for the upcoming release, that is welcome.

I am coming from a slightly different angle which i hope is complimentary. Despite good organization
it is hard to know where a person is coming from and what they may want. A fast word indexing tool
can help. The API has a basic indexing function but i don't think it is full text indexes, so words
within descriptions would not be found. Also the programmers guide etc are not covered. I found
myself wanting to look something up and needing to search multiple HTML documents one at a time
to get the info i was looking for.

For example if i want to get up to speed on heart rate, there may be many aspects to that. Initially i
may not be sure if i am looking for a class, a method, perhaps some description that may be in a guide,
a sample or some release note with a relevant change.

I have done documentation for many products over the years. With microsoft stuff, i tend to use .CHM files
as they automate addition of a smart index along with the logical flow provided by the author. In this case
i just did a PDF as that seemed easiest in the short term to get me going. Also good for cross platform use.
It provides both an outline(table of contents) type structure and allows full text search. Not a full
index but maybe good enough for this API.

I'll have a look at the new SDK, but likely will wait for final release before digging much into it.
Likely will create a separate thread at that time too, this all started as an afterthought on an
unrelated issue.

For the link i provided, by default you may be viewing in the Dropbox viewer, which is not as good as
using the adobe acrobat reader. The reader includes support for the 'outline' and is just a richer way
to use this document. Downloading the file then opening with a good PDF reader is suggested.

SDK 2.2.6, 15Mb, single searchable PDF of the most of the Connect IQ API documentation

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d0h9khfq25xcepx/AACMwTAop7AISN1C00Xt6Qhla?dl=0