Freetype byte code interpreter
Ryan Schmidt <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.fonts.fontforge.devel |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hello, I am a developer with the MacPorts package management system, interested in improving our fontforge port. What is the current status of fontforge and the use of the freetype byte code interpreter? In freetype, this feature is always turned on these days. The option to have it turned off was deleted after the Apple patents on this technology expired in 2010. http://www.freetype.org/patents.html#bytecode-patents Yet fontforge sources still refer users to Apple to obtain a license for this expired patent. https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/blob/master/README-unix > The default configuration is useful to FontForge, but more functionality > is obtained if you enable the bytecode interpreter (but note: you must > have a license from Apple to do this). Instructions for doing so are > in the file README.UNX in the freetype distribution. There is no file README.UNX in the freetype 2.5.0.1 source. Is there a reason why fontforge doesn’t always use this technology now that there is no longer a legal reason not to? How should we package fontforge in MacPorts with regard to the byte code interpreter? Currently we give users the option to turn it on, and default to off, but the decision to have it behave that way predates the expiration of the patents. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ November Webinars for C, C++, Fortran Developers Accelerate application performance with scalable programming models. Explore techniques for threading, error checking, porting, and tuning. Get the most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60136231&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk