Re: XFree86 4.0

[Joerg Pommnitz]

----- Original Message -----
From: Andy MacNamara <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2000 8:01 AM
Subject: XFree86 4.0


> Hi.
>
> I just downloaded the beta of FreeType 2.0, and was very impressed. I'm
> wondering several things:
>
> 1) How do you guys relate to XFree86 4.0 and the FreeType font-server
> module included with it?

There is no formal relationship. Originally Mark Leisher took Freetype-1.x
and made it into X font server module. Because of time pressure he had to
drop the project. At this point Juliusz Chroboczek took over and finishe off
the work. He than joined the XFree86 project and integrated his code into
the
XFree86 tree. He is now the unaknwoledged maintainer of the current font
subsystem in XFree86.

> 2) How far off is 2.0, as I'd love for it (specifically the
> anti-aliasing) to be included in XFree86. I'm willing to do some hacking
> to get it working, but I didn't know how much code the 2.0 release has
> yet to go. Also, has anyone succeeded in getting XFree86 to use the
> FreeType 2.0 code to do native antialiased fonts?

Well, I can't speek for Juliusz, but he indicated more than once that
he will integrate Freetype 2.0 into XFree86 once it is ready. As for
anti-aliasing: This is nothing new in Freetype 2.0. Freetype-1.x could
do anti-aliasing almost from the beginning. This feature is not used in
X because the X protocol does not allow for this. So after a lot of
heated discussion it was decided that anti-aliasing is not a sensible
option for the current X rendering model. Keith Packard is working on
a new one that will contain a completely new font handling scheme. It
is supposed to support anti-aliased character rendering. For more
information read:
http://www.xfree86.org/~keithp/talks/usenix2000/render.html

Regards
    Joerg

> Thanks a lot,
> Andy MacNamara
>
> --
>   Andy MacNamara                                   Email:
> address@hidden
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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