Re: Announcement: System fonts port tree

[Nils Breunese]

Aaron Madlon-Kay  wrote:

> - Why make this?
> 
> I like to keep my fonts up to date, and MacPorts is a great way to do so.

I love this idea!

> I asked about including system font ports in the default ports tree a long 
> time ago on the dev list. The main problem is that it’s not “nice” to put the 
> install files outside of the blessed MacPorts directories ($prefix, 
> /Applications/MacPorts, etc.), so some sort of mechanism that symlinks to 
> /Library/Fonts would need to be developed.

Is the fact that it’s not “nice” to install files outside of the blessed 
directories reason enough to keep these ports out of the official ports tree? 
For fonts to work on macOS they need to be in a directory where macOS will look 
for them. I don’t really see the point of putting them in another directory and 
then creating symlinks outside the MacPorts tree.

I maintain the openjdk* ports and those install their files under 
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines, because that’s where the macOS Java tools 
(like /usr/libexec/java_home) will look for Java Virtual Machines. These font 
ports sound like a pretty similar case to me.

Nils.

Announcement: System fonts port tree

[Aaron Madlon-Kay]

Hi all.

In case anyone is interested in installing system fonts through MacPorts, I’ve 
set up an unofficial ports tree here:

https://github.com/amake/macports-fonts 


See the readme for setup instructions.


- What are “system fonts”?

Simply, fonts that go in /Library/Fonts, for use throughout the system in 
“regular” GUI applications. As opposed to the fonts offered in the default 
ports tree, which seem to be only for X11 or are not by default installed to 
/Library/Fonts and so aren’t “seen” by GUI apps.


- What kinds of fonts are included?

Mostly monospace programming fonts, and CJK stuff. Submissions are welcome.


- Why make this?

I like to keep my fonts up to date, and MacPorts is a great way to do so.

I asked about including system font ports in the default ports tree a long time 
ago on the dev list. The main problem is that it’s not “nice” to put the 
install files outside of the blessed MacPorts directories ($prefix, 
/Applications/MacPorts, etc.), so some sort of mechanism that symlinks to 
/Library/Fonts would need to be developed.

I didn’t have the motivation to implement such a thing, and I don’t really care 
about the "installs files outside the common directory structure” warning, so I 
just said “screw it” and started making ports that dump straight to 
/Library/Fonts.


Enjoy!

-Aaron