Re: [ft-devel] Distinguish real missing character from real character with glyph index 0

[Werner LEMBERG]

Hello Dimitrios!


> I have opened in a wrong place a wish request, the conversation is
> at the end of the mail.

Well, it was the right place (i.e., the bug tracker) for a wish
request.  However, only now I understand what you really want to
achieve.

> At the notes of the FT_Get_Char_Index it says clearly that freetype
> modifies the font.

Yes.  It makes glyph index 0 always (the equivalent to) the .notdef
character if necessary.

> The request is to give to the user the original information of the
> font.

Why?

> If i am asking from a Type1 font the glyph index for glyph name
> "foobar" and it doesn't exist to return the information that i
> doesn't exist and not returning the glyph index for the .notdef
> character.

Why, again?  A Type 1 font is not valid if a `.notdef' character is
missing, so it is a courtesy of FreeType to not plainly reject the
font but to render it inspite of being not valid.  Note that FreeType
is a font rendering engine, not a tool to manipulate fonts.

> Also if there isn't .notdef character also i would like to know
> that.

What are you going to do with this information?  As far as I can see,
it has zero importance for font rendering...

> Summarize the above example, it could be nice to distinguish what
> does it mean glyph index 0.  Is it the real map of the
> charcode|glyph name to the glyph index or it is fallback mechanisms
> to get the notdef glyph?

I don't see any practical use for this request, but perhaps you can
enlighten me.


    Werner