Re: unifont - consensus on dependencies
Quoth unifoundry@unifoundry.com, on 2008-06-22 10:02:15 -0700:
> If I must convert that to PCF it will add a dependency (on bdftopcf)
> that doesn't exist today. Must I never install the BDF font, but
> add a dependency for bdftopcf and only install a gzipped PCF
> version?
Are you confusing Depends and Build-Depends? I'm not sure why
installing PCF versions of fonts would require a Depends link; can the
conversion not be done at package build time? A user who wants to use
the PCF versions of the fonts wouldn't need bdftopcf, only someone who
wanted to modify some glyphs and then rebuild the PCF files, right?
I would tend to assume that Build-Depends: xfonts-utils is reasonable
if BDF is used as an intermediary format. I see 93 packages
(according to [apt-rdepends -r -f Build-Depends xfonts-utils]) that
currently have that link, mostly also packages of fonts.
> The Debian Policy Manual does not list a directory under
> /usr/share/fonts/X11 for TrueType fonts. I plan to have the font be
> in the "main/x11" Debian section, and so would like the TrueType
> version of the font installed under the X11 hierarchy.
FWIW, various ttf-* packages that are also in the x11 section use the
/usr/share/fonts/truetype directory for this; see for example
ttf-bitstream-vera or ttf-freefont.
> 3) I'm using scripts originally written by Luis Gonzalez Miranda to
> convert unifont.hex files into TrueType using FontForge. Therefore I do
> intend to add a dependency on FontForge. There's no way around that
> dependency to produce the TrueType version.
Again, an installed package Depends or only a Build-Depends?
> Is there any software still in common use that will not handle TrueType
> fonts? Apparently Debian no longer has support for any software that
> only supports BDF fonts instead of PCF fonts, so it wouldn't be
> considered experimental to remove a BDF font.
Depending on how large the files are, I wonder whether a split package
(from the same source package) with one package containing TrueType
fonts and the other containing PCF fonts would be reasonable. Just a
thought.
---> Drake Wilson
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