The real reason for that choice could only be given by Alexander
Malmberg, who implemented the art backend.
I may be able to offer you a few hints, but none of it may be the
true
reason.
Using the nfont concept offers some benefits over fontconfig. It
allows
us to assign a Postscript name to a font, which is then used for
printing. All the other GNUstep backends need to guess a name
here. The
nfont file FontInfo.plist allows you also to change the name of
the font
of the type face to something more readable and to specify
information
missing or wrong in the actual font data. In addition this concept
allows you to limit the available fonts for GNustep.
Overall I think this is not worth it, this is why I use fontconfig
for
the xlib and the cairo backend, still I can understand when people
take
a different point of view. If there is a demand for it, I could add
fontconfig for art as well as a compile time option.
I agree. While these arguments against using fontconfig are valid, the
mere annoyance of having to create a bundle for each font you want,
and not being able to keep all your fonts in one place, out weighs
them in my mind.
In short, I think it would be a good idea if the art back end could
use fontconfig.
This begs the question -- why make more adjustments to the art
backend when Cairo has been blessed as the backend of choice for
future development?
From Greg's blog ( http://heronsperch.blogspot.com/2006/12/plans-for-
change.html ):
5) Focus and concentrate on one and only one set of display
technologies per platform. We expend way too much time and energy
on maintaining mulitple backends (xlib, art and etc) when we really
don't have to. For Linux/BSD we have two functional backends and
another on the away for cairo. What's the point of this? In my
opinion we should complete the cairo backend and deprecate BOTH the
xlib and art backends. xlib is hopelessly outdated and libart isn't
really supported by anyone anymore.
My suggestion would be that you develop FontManager (which is why I
assume you're asking, Isaiah) on top fontconfig exclusively, and see
if there is a way to help get the Cairo backend to the point where
art/xlib really can be deprecated, per Greg's plans.
J.
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