Re: State of xfstt
Radovan Garabik <garabik@melkor.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk> writes:
> On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 06:14:23AM -0800, Jim Gettys wrote:
> > An X font server should become the exception (for XFree86 4.x)
> > rather than the rule.
> >
> > It is better to have the server rasterize the fonts than a font
> > server, to provide TT fonts to legacy X applications (pre Render
> > and Xft).
>
> but if you have a LARGE font (such as some rather complete unicode
> fonts), then when the application asks for such a font, font
> renderer freezes for a noticably long time (30 seconds on my P4 1.5
> GHz!) If I am using font server, I can switch to console, or use
> other applications etc..., but if the fonts are rendered by X server
> itself, the whole machine is dead during this time (you cannot
> switch to console...)
Other (commercial) X server implementations are multithreaded for this
reason...
I must say I'd prefer to add the needed extensions to the font
protocol, though. I have an old Tektronix X terminal at home, its
software is barely new enough to support a font server. At the time
of release, only Speedo fonts were available. Today, I can use
TrueType or Type1 with no problems. I think this abstraction and
backwards compatibility is a great feature, and it would be sad to
move away from it.
Kjetil T.
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