Martin Fitzgibbons wrote:  (Sept. 28, '01)

   I would like to print some individual letters in a
     circular pattern but can't seem to nut it out.
   For simplicity sake say there was 36 letters that I
     want to go around the circumference.
   How would I calculate their positions?
   Any suggestions?



Here is a demo I put together that may show what you want. It 
calculates the position of each letter in a text string using a 
little bit of trigonometry and adjusts the position slightly for the 
size of the characters so the mid-point of each letter is on the 
desired circle to get a more pleasing look. The letters are still 
vertically oriented; to rotate them you would need to also use an 
of-screen GWorld.

Hope this helps.
- Stu Cram, Regina, Sask. Canada

' --------------- START OF PRGRAM ---------------
'~'2
' Printing Text Around A Circle Between 2 Angles - Demo Program; 
' By Stu Cram, Regina, Sask Canada  - Sept. 29, 2001
' For FB^3 Forum & reply to Martin Fitzgibbons' question.
'~'2

LOCAL FN showRefCircle( X,Y,R )
   ' draws a light gray circle with 12 radiating spokes
   DIM degrees, radians#, h,v
   DIM spokeNum

   LONG COLOR -16384, -16384, -16384' light gray (25%)
   CIRCLE x,y,r
   FOR spokeNum = 1 TO 12
     LET degrees = spokeNum * 30
     ' ... convert degrees to radians (PI is a built-in FB^3 value)
     LET radians = degrees*PI/180
     ' ... calc. position for end of spoke a bit beyond edge of circle
     LET h = X + (R+4) * SIN( radians )
     LET v = Y - (R+4) * COS( radians )
     ' ... draw spoke from center to end of the spoke
     PLOT X,Y TO h,v
     NEXT spokeNum
END FN

'~'2

LOCAL FN ShowTextAroundCircle( T$, X,Y,R, B,E )
   ' X,Y       Position (x,y) of circle's center
   ' R         Radius of the circle
   ' B,E       Beginning and Ending angles in degrees
   '             (North = 0°; positive = clockwise)
   DIM numChars, charNum
   DIM degrees#, radians#, angleStep#
   DIM 1 ch$
   DIM h, v

   FN showRefCircle( X,Y,R )  ' <--- omit in final version

   LET numChars = LEN( T$ )
   ' calc. angular distance between letters
   LET angleStep = (E - B ) / (numChars-1)

   FOR charNum = 1 TO numChars
     ' ... get the character to be shown
     LET ch$ = CHR$( T$[charNum] )
     ' ... calc. angular position in degrees around circle
     LET degrees = B + (charNum-1) * angleStep
     ' ... convert degrees to radians (PI is a built-in FB^3 value)
     LET radians = degrees*PI/180
     ' ... calc. horz. position on screen & adjust for char. width
     LET h = X + R * SIN( radians )
     LET h = h - FN StringWidth( ch$ )/2
     ' ... calc. vert. position on screen & adjust for char. height
     LET v = Y - R * COS( radians )
     LET v = v + FN GetDefFontSize / 2
     COLOR _zRed
     ' ... show the character in desired position
     PRINT %(h,v) ch$;
     DELAY 100  '<--- remove for final version
   NEXT v
   DELAY 1000   '<--- remove for final version
END FN

'~'2

WINDOW 1, "Text on a Circle - Demo", (0,0)-(800,600), 5
TEXT _Geneva, 14, 1

FN ShowTextAroundCircle( "0123456789", 100,100,75,  0,90 )
FN ShowTextAroundCircle( "0123456789", 260,340,100,  90,0 )
FN ShowTextAroundCircle( "ABCDEFGHIJKL", 600,400,150, 30,150 )
FN ShowTextAroundCircle( "12345", 600,400,150, -60,-120 )
FN ShowTextAroundCircle( "123456789", 500,100,60, -60,60 )

COLOR _zBlack
PRINT %( 20, WINDOW(_height)-5 ) "Click mouse to stop.";

DO
   HandleEvents
UNTIL FN Button

'~'2
' --------------- END OF PRGRAM ---------------