On Monday 05 November 2007 8:49:01 am Darren Dale wrote: > On Monday 05 November 2007 8:07:04 am you wrote: > > Darren Dale wrote: > > > On Sunday 04 November 2007 8:50:48 am Michael Droettboom wrote: > > >> This is maybe another push in the direction of using fontconfig (which > > >> claims to support otf fonts already). I'd really prefer to go in that > > >> direction rather than continue to tack on partial reimplementations of > > >> it in font_manager.py -- but it does complicate dependencies on > > >> non-X11 platforms). > > > > > > What are the dependency problems? I thought freetype was the only > > > requirement. Incidentally, GIMP uses fontconfig on windows, and they > > > comment at http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/downloads.html: > > > "Contrary to what many seem to think, fontconfig is in no way dependent > > > on X11, so it does make some sense to use it on Windows." > > > > Fontconfig depends on freetype and either expat or libxml2 (expat being > > the easier/lighter dependency). > > Oh, your right. > > > But the real dependency problem is that on Windows it generally isn't > > already there. So it would have to be added to the external windows > > dependency zip, and we would probably have to go through a few > > contortions to call it as a commandline tool. > > I wonder if that comes with additional overhead. > > > If we go the route of > > wrapping the API (which would be better anyway, since then we could look > > for fonts in our own custom font directory), it would just be like the > > existing dependencies on freetype and libpng. Not a big deal, really, > > but it adds an additional maintenance burden on those Windows > > dependencies. > > > > On the Mac, fontconfig appears to be installed as part of Apple's X11 > > distribution, but not without it, even though it is useful outside of > > X11. > > > > So, in case you can't tell, I've long been torn by this -- fontconfig > > solves the font lookup problem in a much more robust way than matplotlib > > will probably ever have the resources to do. On the other hand, it adds > > complexity to the matplotlib build req's. Perhaps if there were buy-in > > from some regular Windows and Mac devels to help maintain this going > > forward I wouldn't be so hesitant. > > Thanks for explaining. What a headache. I wonder what other cross-platform > applications and libraries use to deal with fonts, like Qt and OpenOffice. > Are there native alternatives to fontconfig that are universally installed > on mac and windows? Or do all these projects have to roll their own > solution like we do?
(That was a rhetorical question. I know we have gone around these circles a couple times before now.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
