Re: font servers [was: some XFree86 5.0 questions]

AC> This discussion originally came out of the STSF discussion.  While
AC> STSF uses a "font server" it is nothing like the X Font Server

Sorry, I overlooked that.  Is the STSF font service protocol
documented?  I couldn't find a spec on the SF site, and I'd be curious
to see how you solved the issue with OpenType being extensible.

My main point, though, was that most of the objections to the notion
of client-side fonts have been or can be addressed in the Xft
architecture.  I'm not claiming, by the way, that these objections are
unreasonable: I used to have the same misgivings.

AC> By having a single machine-wide glyph cache in our font server, we
AC> can scale multi-seat setups better than a per-server glyph cache

I agree.  I also agree that this might be an issue in a highly
centralised environment, as the one that you sketch with your SunRay
example.

We (XFree86) haven't yet been confronted with examples of such an
environment.  If we ever are (and I hope we won't), either Xft can be
extended to use a centralised font rasterisation daemon, or else
servers can be modified to share a glyph cache.  (Your Xft ``bridge''
would appear to be a proof by example that such a solution is workable.)

                                        Juliusz