Xlib and rotated text?

[Chris]

Hi all,

not sure if this is the correct mailing list, buf please refer me to the correct list if this is the wrong place.

I'm trying to learn to code for X by learning xlib. The application I'm writing must be able to run with as few dependencies as possible (I need to be able to build it on machines where I have no control over the environment) so I want to avoid using to any higher-layer library if at all possible.

What I'm trying to do:
I want to write some strings that are rotated 90 degrees. If the solution handles ASCII, then that's sufficient, but if it handles latin-1 then even better, but I don't need any unicode or such.


Solution?
I've search the net for how to do this, but can't really figure out how and/or which way is best/easiest way forward. The "Xlib Programming Manual" book says it isn't supported in xlib, but since the book is quite old it doesn't cover X11R6, and in the release notes for X11R6.3, there's some text that indicates that there now might be such support (section 3.14 of ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R6.3/tars/RELNOTES.PS), but I can't find any examples or manual of how to use this stuff.

I've had a look at freetype, but it seems like overkill for what I need and also a dependency I'm not sure I can "afford" (and it seems that then I also need fontconfig). So this is a last resort for me.

I also found some code in the old "xvertext" package somewhere on the net that seems to do this, but haven't managed to figure it out yet, and since it's from 1993(?), I'm not sure it is up-to-date.

So, can I do it in Xlib without writing the complete matric algebra by myself (if so, where can I find an example/manual/tutorial), should I use xvertext, freetype or something completely different that I haven't found yet?

Thanks in advance,
  Chris