[Mageia-dev] why not disable bytecode interpreter in freetype2 ?

Fri May 13 17:46:38 CEST 2011

On Friday, 13 May 2011 17:28:24 Zé wrote:
+> 2011/5/13 Buchan Milne <bgmilne at staff.telkomsa.net>:
+> > On Friday, 13 May 2011 11:12:41 Zé wrote:
+> >> 2011/5/13 Zé <mmodem00 at gmail.com>:
+> >> > 2011/5/13 Dimitrios Glentadakis <dglent at gmail.com>:
+> >> >> Στις Παρασκευή 13 Μάιος 2011 00:39:55 Zé γράψατε:
+> >> >>> 2011/5/12 Dick Gevers <dvgevers at xs4all.nl>:
+> >> >>> > On Thu, 12 May 2011 13:20:39 +0200, Dimitrios Glentadakis wrote
+> >> >>> > about
+> >> >>> 
+> >> >>> perl -pi -e 's|#define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER|/\*
+> >> >>> #define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER  \*/|'
+> >> >>> include/freetype/config/ftoption.h
+> >> >>> 
+> >> >>> 
+> >> >>> dont forget to also increase Release to avoid conflicts with
+> >> >>> existant freetype2, and then build the package.
+> >> >> 
+> >> >> Why do all these things when you can simply add an entry in the
+> >> >> font.conf file ?
+> >> > 
+> >> > Thats a fact, but hat should happen is that freetype2 should have
+> >> > bytecode interpreter disabled by default, since so far users prefer
+> >> > it.
+> >> 
+> >> Seams Fedora choosed to finally fix it, it reverted freetype2 with a
+> >> patch to disable bytecode interpreter. ->
+> >> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=547532
+> > 
+> > No, this is not what is covered in this bug report.
+> 
+> Yes, correct i miss understood what as the bug report about.
+> 
+> > Firstly, here are the non-problems:
+> > 1)The bytecode interpreter *can* make fonts look better, *if* they have
+> > hinting in the fonts. Not all ttf fonts have hinting, but AFAIK all the
+> > MS fonts *do* have hinting.
+> > 
+> > So, historically, the recommended approach was to use the PLF freetype
+> > *if* you had imported MS fonts (e.g. from a dual-boot Windows
+> > installation).
+> 
+> Well i always avoid using PLF freetype and for what i have read in
+> ML's all the users that answered to it said that also avoid PLF
+> freetype.
+> 
+> So far for hat i have seen, all users prefered like fonts were
+> rendered wen patents were still valid...
+
+Were *all* these users using *hinted* fonts? I think they weren't using hinted 
+fonts at all.
+
+> > 2)The Freetype autohinter was implemented later, and improves things for
+> > unhinted fonts, but hinted fonts still looked better with the bytecode
+> > interpreter.
+> > 
+> > 
+> > This is the problem:
+> > 3)If the bytecode interpreter was enabled, auto-hinting was disabled (or,
+> > could be, for 'medium' and 'heavy' hinting settings) for unhinted fonts.
+> > 
+> > The Fedora bug isn't about disabling the bytecode interpreter, but by
+> > still allowing auto-hinting for unhinted fonts if the bytecode
+> > interpreter.
+> > 
+> > *This* is the right fix. Your insistence to *disable* the bytecode
+> > interpreter (leaving users with *no* options, in case they need hinted
+> > fonts) is the wrong fix.
+> 
+> Well this way users cant also set to have autohint, seams theres
+> always some app failing.
+
+?
+
+We need to apply the patch that enables the autohinter for unhinted fonts, 
+even if the bytecode interpreter is enabled, that is available from the bug 
+report for which you provided the link.
+
+> Why not having it disabled by default?
+
+So, you haven't read what I wrote in (3)?
+
+> users will always be able to
+> set their preferences about using or not autohint, but that way
+> ensures that all fonts are better rended.
+
+No, you ignore the case where some hinted fonts are almost unusable without 
+the bytecode interpreter, and others where they are rendered better.
+
+> All this came up after patents end in wich showed users how fonts
+> appear poor rended, until that point i didnt saw any complains about
+> fonts, and this is what should be fixed.
+
+You contradict yourself ... and you can't make blanket statements of "how 
+fonts appear poor rended", as it depends on the font (and whether it is hinted 
+or not).
+
+Regards,
+Buchan
+