Re: Build system considerations

[Alexei Podtelezhnikov]

On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 8:09 AM Hugh McMaster <address@hidden> wrote:
> Is there any opportunity to avoid modifying ftoption.h directly to
> enable, say, subpixel rendering with a new build system? Carrying
> permanent patches for downstream packaging is annoying.

[Presently, FT_CONFIG_OPTION_SUBPIXEL_RENDERING only alternates
between ClearType and Harmony algorithms. Most users won't be able
to tell them apart.]

> Personally, I'd like to be able to enable various options via
> configure flags or a configurable file (JSON, anyone?) that's not a C
> header. Python could do nicely here.

One would think that modules.cfg is a configurable file like that but it turns
out that Chromium finds special ftmodule.h more convenient. We also have to
accommodate the less fortunate without Python on embedded systems.

Some choices in FreeType, including the service and module infrastructure and
very lean external dependencies, has helped it to spread so widely.

> Other than that, the removal of RPATHs should be revisited. That's a
> topic for another thread.

Ok.

Alexei