Re: TrueType and Gnome

[Eric Kidd <eric kidd pobox com>]

On Mon, Aug 24, 1998 at 04:31:51PM -0400, Nelson Minar wrote:
> Just so we're all on the same page, do we all agree that Gnome *must*
> work on systems that have no TrueType support at all?

Of course!

> I agree entirely. But as Todd Lewis suggested, I think there's no way
> to do that without the agreement of some other X server vendors. We
> could maybe just do this as an XFree-only effort, but it's not clear
> if that would take hold. I'm also a bit wary of adding yet another
> major piece of work to the Gnome plate.

Well, this is much more of an XFree86 wishlist than an addition the Gnome
project. =)

The biggest question is whether the current APIs could support anti-aliased
fonts, or whether adding them will require new function calls.

X is designed to be extended, so you don't need the other X vendors to
participate in the process, although it would be nice. It should be
possible to create a library which used the anti-aliasing extensions if
they were available, and the regular routines if not.

MetroX is closely based on the XFree86 code, so they'd probably consider
supporting such an extension. Who knows about the others? If something is
implemented and super-easy to add to their existing products, they might
consider it.

I'll drag out my X books and go find an XFree86 list to lurk on for a
while. The Gnome project shouldn't worry about this until it is supported
in an X server or two. Wish I had the time. =(

Cheers,
Eric