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List:       xfree-i18n
Subject:    Re: [I18n]mb/wc Xft API (offtopic)
From:       Juliusz Chroboczek <jec () dcs ! ed ! ac ! uk>
Date:       2001-09-04 15:54:45
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Just a couple of minor corrections that don't add or remove anything
from your argument.

TK> The best way would be that all libc would have relyable and
TK> portable iconv() and XFree86/Xft could use it. This didn't
TK> occur.  However, fortunately, libX11 has a portable encoding
TK> conversion mechanism.  It is portable and relyable, which is
TK> why Juliusz develops luit using it.

More precisely, XFree86 currently contains two mechanisms for encoding
conversion.  There is the Xlib conversion code (due to Bruno), which
deals with text encodings and is restricted to a large subset of
COMPOUND_TEXT.  It is not easily extensible, should never be extended
IMHO, and hardcodes the conversion tables in the text segment, thus
allowing for efficient sharing thereof between processes.

Then there is the fontenc layer, which is used by the scalable
backends (freetype, type1 and speedo, but not xtt).  Unlike the Xlib
conversion code, it doesn't deal with text encodings, only with CCSes
(more precisly, with font encodings, but the two can be safely
confused in this case).  It is easily extensible by adding new
encoding files, but doesn't share tables between processes.

I used fontenc in luit, not the Xlib code.  I wanted luit to support
more than COMPOUND_TEXT without bloating Xlib further (for example,
luit needs to handle the VT 102 semigraphic characters, which clearly
don't belong in Xlib -- or iconv for that matter).

There are two resons why I don't use iconv.  First, I can easily
extend fontenc to any charset I may need, which is not the case with
iconv.  Second, I have a personal dislike for iconv, which is why I
avoid using it in my own code.  I am not particularly interested in
justifying my position, and feel no urge to convince people to follow
my example.

                                        Juliusz
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