[ft] FreeType Modification

[Ammar ul hassan]

Hello team FreeType

My name is Ammar ul hassan, and i am working in a lab as a researcher. I am
starting this new mail thread based on the response from a FreeType member
to whom i privately mailed (Sorry for that i didn't know about this email
list as i just started the research on FreeType). I will write a detail
email so that i can convey you what i am doing in lab and what are some
issues i am facing regarding FreeType. I am new to FreeType so i hope you
will understand even if i ask some basic things.

So, our team in lab is doing some research regarding new font language. Our
aim is to create a new Font language from the programmable font
"METAFONT".I will not go in detail about this new language as its not
important right now. For that goal we are working on different things. My
part is related to, make an environment in FreeType for the new font format
i.e. to make a new font driver for new font in FreeType.

I am trying to read the documentation and source to understand flow of
FreeType. I have divided my work in some steps mentioned below

   1. Understanding the architecture of FreeType which includes the base
   layer interface, low level API, High level api, modules like
   driver,render,helping etc. ( Done with this)
   2. How to compile FreeType with some specific modules and understanding
   the process that how ftmodule.h in objs directory is automatically created.
   ( Done with this)
   3. Creating a replica of any driver module and trying to test with my
   custom client application (I have created a client appliation which takes
   some text and format specific font ( for styling that text ) to be rendered
   on screen using Xft, FreeType). With this third step i can conclude that
   how will i configure a new driver in FreeType. And for my testing of new
   driver i can unplug original driver and instead use my replica driver to
   render same font format.
   4. I came to know that windows font driver 'winfnt' is the simplest to
   start with so i created the copy of this driver in main src directory and
   changed accordingly, also i changed (added custom, modified orignal) other
   files related to 'winfnt' driver in other directories accordingly. This
   Driver module works when a file with format .FNT or .FON is inputed from
   client application. *As this font format is not used Linux than how can
   i test my new replica of winfnt driver in my case? *(testing part
   remaining as i dont know how will i input winfnt specific format)
   5. As i couldn't continue with my winfnt now i have started same with
   Type1 driver though its to complicated right now :( and in my last private
   email i asked about how FreeType actually decides that which driver to
   call. I mean when a .ttf file is inputted than where FreeType decides that
   Truetype driver has to deal with this for rasterizing. which i have been
   answered. I will look into that detail.

I hope you understand the flow and can guide me better regarding this.

Best regards