Re: Future of X ?

I'd like to copmment on font support, as there is a lot of misunderstanding of 
font support on XFree86.

On Thursday 20 March 2003 19:29, you wrote:
[...]
|
|  - Simplyfying and improving font support. Making fonts look better makes
|  Xfree as a project look better and makes users happy. New releases have
|  improved the look of things, but we're not there yet. This is an issue of
|  importance beyond Xfree. Making text more readable on a monitor is
| probably one of the most important things left in integrating computers
| further into human society. A really special target, when you think about
| it.

well, first of all, may I ask you what version of XFree86 do you refer to?
Is it compiled with Freetype "built-in (FreeType copy in XFree86 CVS) or with 
external , dynamically loading FreeType lib?
FreeType in XFree86 CVS is somewhat old and outdated, it's much better to use 
latest stable Freetype version (2.1.3) or even better FT 2.1.4 pre-release 
(RC2).
I can tell you that I am running XFree86 4.3.0, and after upgrade from FT 
2.1.3 to 2.1.4 snapshot (from March 20th) I see *much better rendering of 
fonts* in my KDE 3.1.

To contribute to better rendering of fonts on your display, subscribe to 
<[email protected]> mailing list at www.freetype.org and help FT developers 
to fix outstanding bugs.

|
|  - Fonts also desparately need to be simple to install.
|  One part of having a graphic desktop is to do things

AFAIK, KDE 3.2 would feature fonts://  URL (in Konqueror), so that by dropping 
fonts to that folder would automatically install those fonts for user.
May be, you were asking for something like that?

|  with graphics, including graphics of words. Pro designers won't touch
|  Xfree based systems until font support is easy, neither will Grandma
|  who wants to make Christmas cards. Easy font support probably involves
|  talking to commercial font houses to make it easier for them to produce
|  (and sell ;( ) fonts for Xfree based systems.

There is no need in commercial houses. At least in case when they are trying 
to charge you premium for their fonts.
We have outlines of reasonable quality, recent versions of PfaEdit allow you 
to hint those outlines quite well.
FreeType still needs some fixes, but with those fixes in place youwould get 
great rendering & excellent usability feedback for Joe User or your Grandma.

|
|  - Translucency is a big complaint amongst users, so it probably can't
|  be ignored, but don't let important things like memory handling and usage
| or general speed be forgotten. In the end, when X is criticised (other than
| on slashdot) these are seen as more important than alpha blending, however
| less glamorous they are.

I hope incorporating Xr/Xc at Window Manager level can fix this.

|
|  thanks for reading,
|
|  Indy.
|  Indranath Neogy
|  <[email protected]>

-- 
Best Regards,

Vadim Plessky
SVG Icons * BlueSphere Icons 0.3.0 released
http://svgicons.sourceforge.net