Since render is not yet a standard extension, and making this change would disable Xft on all commercial X servers aside from XFree86, I would caution against it at this time.
My 2cents. -steve >X-Authentication-Warning: engmail2.Eng.Sun.COM: noaccess owned process doing -bs >X-Authentication-Warning: engmail2.Eng.Sun.COM: noaccess@localhost didn't use HELO protocol >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Keith Packard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 19:30:41 -0800 >Subject: [Render] Removing core support from Xft >X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailman-Version: 2.0beta2 >List-Id: XFree86 Render Mailing List <render.XFree86.Org> > > >Over the last year, we've learned a lot about how client side fonts change >the X environment. The initial focus was to simplify the Render extension >protocol and avoid future problems by eliminating font information. This >has been admirably achieved -- we've got lots of possible directions and no >sign that the protocol will limit future font capabilities. > >However, we've also discovered that client side fonts have significant >additional advantages. The ability to draw anti-aliased text is a nice >feature, but has become overshadowed at the application level by the >tremendous power of full access to the font file data. > >Xft attempts to provide symmetrical access to server-side and client-side >fonts; this is hampering application use of client-side fonts while not >helping anything -- existing applications already know how to deal with >server-side fonts and new applications want to take advantage of the >available font information. > >Server-side fonts were added to Xft to support legacy X servers without the >Render extension. I suggest that instead of using server-side fonts, Xft >should rasterize glyphs with FreeType and draw with the Render extension >where available and using the core protocol for legacy servers without >Render support. > >I'd implement both AA and non-AA paths, making this perform reasonably well >over networks while also providing extended capabilities for servers not >able to move to the Render extension. I've done client-side non-AA text in >the core protocol in the past and have found it acceptable, even over >relatively low speed links (128K ISDN). > >Please write with concerns or comments. > >Keith Packard XFree86 Core Team Compaq Cambridge Research Lab > > >_______________________________________________ >Render mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/render Steve Swales Senior Manager, Platform Globalization Engineering X.Org Chairperson Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2515 North First Street, MS USJC07-201 San Jose, CA 95131 Direct 408 635-0623 Fax 408 635-0670 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Fonts mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/fonts
