Boustrophedon text

[tsh73]

Boustrophedon text
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon
'Boustrophedon text
'tsh73 Feb 2019
'Wikipedia rules ;)
'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon
'mirror and flip
'by getbmp line by line
'and ouputting backwards
'    Had to justify text for nice look.
data "THIS EXAMPLE OF BOUSTROPHEDON TEXT WAS"
data "WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE WIKIPEDIA"
data "ARTICLE ON THIS OX TURNING METHOD OF"
data "COVERING A WALL WITH TEXT IN ANCIENT"
data "GREECE AND ELSEWHERE"

nomainwin
 WindowWidth = 605
 WindowHeight = 300
 UpperLeftX = 1
 UpperLeftY = 1
open "BOUSTROPHEDON" for graphics_nsb_nf as #gr
#gr "trapclose [quit]"
#gr "down"
#gr "fill white; flush"
#gr "home; posxy cx cy"

#gr "font times_new_roman 0 26 bold"
x0=10
#gr "place " ;x0;" ";70
#gr "posxy x y"
w=2*cx-2*x0
for i = 1 to 5
   read a$
   'justified text, anyone?
   if i = 5 then
       #gr "place ";x0;" ";y
       #gr "\";a$  'default is left-justified
   else
       numSps=0
       noSps$=""
       for j=1 to len(a$)
           if mid$(a$,j,1)=" " then
               numSps=numSps+1
           else
               noSps$=noSps$+mid$(a$,j,1)
           end if
       next
       #gr "stringwidth? noSps$ totPix"
       extra=w-totPix
       print extra, extra/numSps
       k=0
       pos=x0
       while 1
           k=k+1
           w$=word$(a$,k)
           if w$="" then exit while
           #gr "place ";pos;" ";y
           #gr "\";w$
           #gr "stringwidth? w$ wPix"
           pos=pos+wPix+extra/numSps

       wend
   end if
   oldY=y
   #gr "posxy x y"
   if i mod 2=0 then
       h=y-oldY
       'call rect "#gr",x0,oldY,2*cx-2*x0,0-(y-oldY)
       'call rect "#gr",x0,oldY-h,w,h
       call mirror "#gr", x0,oldY-h, w, h, x0, 200
       call copy "#gr", x0, 200, w, h, x0, oldY-h
   end if
   #gr "place ";x;" ";y
next
'erase last rect
#gr "place ";x0;" ";y
#gr "color white; backcolor white"
#gr "boxfilled ";x0+w;" ";y+h

#gr "flush"
wait

#gr "home"
#gr "backcolor yellow; circlefilled 50"

#gr "backcolor white; circle 20"
call rect "#gr", cx, cy, 30, 20,
call copy "#gr", cx, cy, 30, 20, 80,100

call mirror "#gr", cx, cy, 30, 20, 200,100
call flip "#gr", cx, cy, 30, 20, 200,200

#gr "flush"

wait

[quit]
   timer 0
   close #gr
end

sub rect gr$, x,y,w,h
   #gr$ "place " ;x;" ";y
   #gr$ "box ";x+w;" ";y+h
end sub

sub copy gr$, x,y,w,h,destX,destY
   #gr$ "getbmp tmpBmp ";x;" ";y;" ";w;" ";h
   #gr$ "drawbmp tmpBmp ";destX;" ";destY
end sub

sub mirror gr$, x,y,w,h,destX,destY
   for i=1 to w
       #gr$ "getbmp tmpBmp ";x+w-i;" ";y;" 1 ";h
       #gr$ "drawbmp tmpBmp ";destX+i;" ";destY
   next
end sub

sub flip gr$, x,y,w,h,destX,destY
   for i=1 to h
       #gr$ "getbmp tmpBmp ";x;" ";y+h-i;" ";w;" 1 "
       #gr$ "drawbmp tmpBmp ";destX;" ";destY+i
   next
end sub



[B+]

Interesting, this was common practice with Greeks but people made a big deal with Da Vinci writing "in code" with mirror writing.

This sort of writing has the advantage of not having to dart eyes back and find the next line of writing.

I wonder how the mind might work differently with a lifetime of this sort of reading.

[tenochtitlanuk]

I met this in the past, and enjoyed trying your code.

I hadn't realised before that the practice of numbering house addresses down one side of the road and back up the other wasn't universal- many countries seem to just go down one side with odds and the other with evens.

For those of us who grew up in the 'gramophone' generation, writing in circles or arcs was common. I've done this in LB with difficulty- each letter needs rotating by a different angle. ( It can be done in PhotoShop or GIMP, I think..)

I've posted SQUARE spiral text LB programs before. They can be read as columns in a form of encryption..
EDIT My LB rotated text used similar technique to B+ 'Flip and mirror' thread..