Juliusz Chroboczek writes: > I'm currently in the process of changing somewhat the core bitmaps > fonts system in order to simplify it and extend its functionality. > > Because the planned changes will break some users' configurations[1], > David suggested that the core server should include Keith's > ``builtin'' fonts, and that builtin should be implicitly added to the > font path. Because builtin fonts include the fonts that the server > absolutely needs to function (fixed and cursor), this would make sure > that the server can start whatever the fonts (mis-)configuration. > > In the longer term, as client-side fonts become the norm, we could > kill the core fonts system altogether and only keep the built-in fonts > for compatibility with the protocol.
We cannot do this for people who rely on running legacy apps. Especially commercial binary only apps that have been used for years and which cannot be changed because the vendor went out of business. This will make these legacy apps look horrible, some will not even start as they insist on a specific font. This will at best be configurable in some app default, but still it will be a huge pain in the neck. > > Unfortunately, the built-in fonts code, in its current state, is not > useful for that. > > Indeed, the current built-in code pulls in much of the PCF code (which > is exactly what I'm in the process of eliminating), much of the local > FPE code (which I hope to eliminate later), and much of the fontfile > code (which must go at some point). In object-oriented terms, it > inherits from the current (``legacy'') PCF code rather than being a > completely independent implementation of the FPE interface. > > Rewriting built-in fonts from scratch in a manner such that they can > be included in the core server would not be a big job, and I will be > glad to help anyone who volunteers to do that. If nobody does, I'll > probably do it at some point. > > For now, I'm going to break users' configurations without the > ``builtin'' safety net. Watch this space for further updates[1]. > > Juliusz > > [1] I haven't quite made up my mind about how to handle it, but I > expect that the ``bitmap'' module will no longer be loaded > automatically. Thus, one day you'll cvs update, make World, and > if you don't load either bitmap or freetype, stuff will break. If > you explicitly load either bitmap or freetype, you should be fine. We should then add one of these modules to the config files generated by our configuration tools. Egbert. _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/devel
