Re: Policy: font paths.
>> > Last night I installed some more type1 fonts on my
>> >system and I had to manually configure both X and ghostscript.
>> >Then I found on the net a little perl script to automatize that
>> >and I tought: why doesnt the debian have a policy regarding fonts?
>> >Why doesnt has a standard font installer/manager.
>> >
>> > If someone is interested i can package the perl script
>> >but that will not solve the problem of where to put fonts.
>> >Maybe someone could write a font manager for debian...
>> >
>> > Any ideas about that? Ciao!
>>
>> I second that. I would have volunteered, but I didn't think of it. <g>
>I think you can volunteer anyway, if you really want...
>
>> Actual font installation for X11, teTeX, Groff, and everything
>> else isn't difficult, provided that one keeps track of where all the various
>> fonts systems are located.
>>
>> I would suggest taking advantage of the dialog utility so that non-X
>>users can
>> maintain their fonts, too. It would be a good idea to have pre- and post-
>> installation scripts for any .deb font libraries, because it would be
>> necessary to determine what fonts are already present. One would also need
>> to
>> find out, somehow, the resolutions of the different display devices.
>>
>> As far as a "policy", I would say that any font which is publicly available
>> is fair to be included in Debian. Granted, sometimes the origin of a font
>> isn't obvious, nor what specific licensing arrangements apply. For a
>> start, I
>> would say that any of the fonts in the X11R6, teTeX, Groff or ghostscript
>> distributions have had their licensing agreements investigated and should
>> be safe for inclusion.
>
>I agree, but that does not resolve the question on where to put type1 fonts.
>On my old Amiga I had PS version of cmr, etc.. in texmf, and other ps
>fonts dispersed anywere on the system, depending on wich program installed
>them... and I dont want to repeat that on my linux box.
>
>I think metafont sources go well in texmf because only MF uses them, and
>X bitmaps (non scalable fonts) stay well in /usr/X11R6/... but what
>to do with PS? At now GS install in /usr/lib/ghostscript/.. and X in
>X11R6. Other programs install in some subdirs of lib.
>
>What about a sigle place like /usr/share/...? And leave in X11R6 only
>the real X fonts?
Not unless you would like to rehash the teTeX database, and reset the variables
which the kpathsea library uses for fonts searching as well. That would
increase the complexity of any such program by an order of magnitude, I think.
So, it would probably be better to leave the Type 1 fonts distributed with
teTeX
under texmf, and then use the VARFONTS environment variable to specify
directories where other font libraries a located. There could also be in,
say, a VARFONTs directory, something like /etc/alternatives, where you could
do some trickery with soft links to the actual directories, /usr/share if
the original packages' installations permit that. Most, however, don't, not
without recompiling.
Bob
Robert_A._Kiesling@macline.com
kiesling@terracom.net
...No writing gig too small...
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