[Freetype] Freetype Roadmap and stuff

[henry . maddocks]

I've been working on an OpenGL wrapper for Freetype for some time now 
and I'm just about ready to release the final v1.0. Have a look at...

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/henryj/code/index.html

Some of the work for future versions of FTGL hinges a little on the dev 
status of freetype. Where things are at and what we can expect in the 
future. In particular I want to improve the memory usage when using many 
faces and many sizes of the same face which despite what the docs say, 
I'll be doing all the time.
 It seems that solutions to a couple of my problems might be available 
in Freetype but only as beta. I don't want FTGL users to have to use a 
beta version of Freetype so if these features aren't going to be 
available in a stable release for a while then I may have to come up 
with an alternative.

I was thinking that the caching sub-system would be the way to deal with 
multiple faces. The docs say it's beta. (So does ftcache.h) Is this 
still the case? When can we expect it to be integrated into a final 
release?

As for multiple sizes, what's the best way to deal with them? The docs 
mention there is a way to acheive this but don't say how.
<quote>
NOTA BENE: a single face object can deal with one or more size objects 
at a time, however, this is something that few programmers really need 
to do. We have thus have decided to simplify the API for the most common 
use (i.e. one size per face), while keeping this feature available 
through additional fuctions.
</quote>

What are these additional functions? I saw this recently in the cvs...
<quote>
Provide a public API to manage multiple size objects for a given
FT_Face in the new header file `ftsizes.h'.
</quote>

Are these the mysterious additional functions? Should they be used or 
will the cache stuff help here too? Can someone point me in the right 
direction?

TIA

On a slightly different subject, I need a license to release FTGL under. 
(everyone keeps asking for one) I would like to use the Freetype 
license. Are there any objections? Can I use it verbatim and just say 
"substitute FTGL for Freetype" or should I rewrite it or should I go 
find my own?

Henry

"A lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute a crisis on mine."