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List:       freetype-devel
Subject:    Re: FreeType 2 and /2
From:       "David Turner" <dturner () cybercable ! fr>
Date:       1999-01-11 20:30:20
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Hi Michal, glad to hear you too :-)

>  Hi David,
>
> Just when I thought you'd never appear again you showed up!
>Good news, that's for sure. 
>

Yes, sorry for the silence, but my Unix account had problems
and I didn't want to be involved directly on the FreeType lists
at work, as this would have most certainly reduced my
productivity considerably ;-)

> I admit I haven't properly looked at FreeType 2 yet so I'll
>ask you directly: how much is the API changed? How difficult
>do you think it will be to adapt FT/2 to the changes? Is it
>now so stable (the API I mean) that I should start fixing
>FT/2?
>

The API is very similar, you'll mainly have to replace the
"TT_" prefix by "FT_" (e.g. TT_Load_Glyph becomes
FT_Load_Glyph) and grasp a few new concepts about the
way font files are installed/managed/used. Also many
TT_Get_XXX_Properties/Metrics have disapeared has
this data can be accessed directly now.

If you really want to have an idea, I suggest you to read
the file "freetype2/lib/base/freetype.h" because everything
is now heavily commented. You can also compare the demonstration
programs between 2.0 and 1.x to see what really changed.

> Do you have the latest FT/2 at all? It hasn't really changed
>much, but the more important new features are that it supports
>kerning now - how well I'm not sure because the apps using
>it are pretty scarce. StarOffice (5.0 at least) is an exception
>though - BTW check it out if you haven't already, it looks good
>and it's free - available even for OS/2 and Linux.
>

I'll have a look at it, because I have some docs in Word97 format
which doesn't seem to convert well to HTML or Word6 (I guess
this is just a "feature" from Office97..).

I don't have the latest FT/2, I am still rebuilding my hard disks
and my OS/2 is now on a back-up. I'm dying to set it up though.
For now, my Linux box locks up in X11, and I'm forced to code and
debug in text mode for now. Funny thing, though I hope to get a
better server in a few days :-)

> The other change is that there is finally some DBCS support,
>according to reports it works well for Chinese (both Traditional
>and Simplified). Japanese may or may not work and Korean doesn't.
>My biggest problem is that I can't very well test it because I
>don't have the fonts - the most I could get is about 20 Chinese
>fonts (some Trad. and some Simplified) totalling over 40 megs :-)
>
What fonts are missing ? I have been working with many of them
at my last work, and I may be able to "borrow" them for testing
purpose..

> OK, that's enough for now, I won't hold you so you can finish
>that T1 driver ;-)
>
So do I, but as I already said, I want to finish the 2.0 API first,
so we'll have to wait a little (no schedule, sorry..)

See you,

- David

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