load_bios_font(3alleg4)

💖 load_bios_font — Allegro manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair, we're in the Allegro manual and today's topic is load_bios_font from the Allegro game programming library. yes it's a real function. yes it's giving niche. no you probably won't call it yourself. let's go 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

like, here's the shape of it, copy-paste ready:

#include <allegro.h>

FONT *load_bios_font(const char *filename, RGB *pal, void *param)

that's it. that's the whole signature. iconic honestly.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So this one loads a 8x8 or 8x16 BIOS format font. Two sizes, both slaying in their own lane, pick your fighter 💅

ngl though — you shouldn't normally call this routine directly. like, it's not for you, bestie. it's the machinery behind the curtain, the backstage pass, the thing that other font-loading stuff reaches for. calling it yourself is lowkey main-character behaviour in the wrong movie 😭

💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

• Returns a pointer to the font on a good day ✨
• Returns NULL on error 🫠 (vibe check failed, no font for you)

and bestie, LISTEN. you are responsible for destroying the font when you are finished with it. the way that memory leaks will absolutely come for you if you don't — fr fr, clean up after yourself, that's the whole assignment 🎀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• register_font_file_type(3alleg4)
• load_font(3alleg4)

go read those too, they're the ones you probably actually want, no cap 🌈

that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was Allegro, version 4.4.3, and the page itself is load_bios_font(3alleg4) — go forth and not leak memory, you've got this 👑