Re: Experimenting in C code

I succeeded in compiling FontForge without too much trouble. My experience might help others.

I have a Mac OS X desktop and a Linux Mint laptop, both with the latest OS versions. Linux was an easy choice. Linux was made for development.

I didn’t really follow your instructions. On the laptop, I just went to fontforge.github.io where I saw a link named “Development” and clicked it. From there I went to CONTRIBUTING.md in one browser tab and INSTALL-git.md in another.

First, as at the top of the install tab, I “[c]lone[d] a copy of the Github source repository."

Next, the install tab had library installation commands for some distros, but not for Mint. So I used the library list in the contributing tab, installing all the -dev branches I could find in Synaptic Package Manager, except libungif and libX, which Synaptic couldn’t find.

Then I went back to the install tab and jumped to “Now run the build and installation scripts….” The bootstrap command quit instantly, complaining about a few missing libraries. Synaptic found all but libtoolize, but I installed libtool instead (the -dev branch, of course). When libtoolize complained about missing ltdl, I installed libltdl. Then bootstrap ran to completion.

Next step, configure, ran without any problems. The list of optional libraries at the end showed that libgif and libreadline were missing. QUESTION: after I install those libraries, can I include them by just running bootstrap, configure, etc., from the beginning?

The make step also ran without trouble. I noticed as the messages flew by that there were a lot of return values ignored. I’m sure at least some of those return values should be used in the code to make sure requested memory is actually allocated and that unallocated memory is not addressed.

Next: make install, ldconfig, and now FontForge is in the application menu and starts up when its menu entry is clicked. I didn’t try to load any fonts, just verified that it exists and can be invoked.

> On Jun 1, 2016, at 2:25 AM, Jose Da Silva <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Hi Martin,
> If you are interested in trying to add improvements and fixes to FontForge, 
> the first thing you need to do is see if you are able to build and compile 
> FontForge on your computer, otherwise it will be difficult to test your fixes 
> and improvements.
> 
> I am unfamiliar with the MAC, but understand there is homebrew as a method 
> of install. This appeared to show at the top of the list (using homebrew):
> https://www.davidlanier.com/blog/2012/1/how-to-install-fontforge-mac-os-x-
> lion-homebrew
> 
> If you are using Linux, you will need to load some developer utilities, 
> such as gcc before trying to build it. If you are using a Debian based 
> distro, such as Ubuntu, Mint, or others, this may help:
> https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/downloads/gnulinux/
> ...likewise, for RPM based distros such as Fedora, RedHat, SuSE, Mageia, 
> etc.
> 
> Pick-up the latest FontForge source:
> https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge
> 
> Assuming you successfully compiled the program, installed it, and tried 
> running it, the next thing you want to try, is tweak a few files and try 
> compile and install again. Easiest way to do this is add some printf("I'm 
> here\n); sort of lines in a file of interest...you could see an example of 
> this in gutils/unicodelibinfo.c where you'l see some commented fprintf() in 
> various locations.
> 
> ...this is a follow-up from user-list:
> "Re: [fontforge-users] abrupt exits and a question"

-- 
							Marty
Martin B. Brilliant at home in Holmdel, NJ


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