Re: [ft-devel] Regarding the 2.1.10 release

[David Somers]

On Wednesday 23 March 2005 17:27, Lars Knoll wrote:
> [snip]
> Please remember that these are not the only projects around. At least Qt
> does also use the opentype code that unfortunately relies on internal
> freetype headers, but I'm sure there are some more projects out there.

Using *internal* headers is bad!

> [snip]
> > - instead, it will install 'dummy' headers, which purpose
> >    will be to produce #errors at compilation time, in order
> >    to inform developers that they should upgrade the libraries
> >    they're trying to link with FT2... (again, trying to be
> >    descriptive)
>
> Why install them at all then? If they are completely missing, you'll get a
> compile error as well. The error will not be quite as descriptive, but I
> don't think that matters.

IMHO, a nice #error message is always better than scratching one's head and 
trying to work out the meaning behind some (usually) incomprehensive 
compiler/linker error message.

> The changes you're proposing are rather big, and break both the API and the
> behaviour of freetype. Have you considered changing the library version
> number for this release to 7, so old applications using freetype < 2.1.10
> can continue to work?

Sounds good to me too.


> [snip]
> Another possibility I can see would be to move the open type code back into
> freetype. It would require some work on the public API of the open type
> module, but would finally unify the different versions of the open type
> code floating around in different projects again.

Call me crazy (many have!) but I think that OpenType code should remain 
separate from Freetype.


Regards from warm and very sunny Luxembourg,

David Somers
VoIP: FWD 622885
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