Re: [ft-devel] [GSoC] ftinspect

[Werner LEMBERG]

> TrueType Viewer by Rogier van Dalen already is a FreeType-based font
> viewer and hinting debugger with a quite decently designed Qt-based
> GUI.
> 
> https://github.com/rogiervd/fonttools
> 
> http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~slam/fonts/truetypeviewer.html

Basically, this is excellent code – *not* based on FreeType, but his
own implementation.  The debugger works both forwards and backwards,
something the FreeType debugger can't do.

Unfortunately, it is written in high-level C++ that no longer compiles
with modern compilers.  I tried twice to update, and I failed twice.
It's too C++ for me :-/

> I think it would benefit from being upgraded, and possibly extended
> to support HarfBuzz shaping and variable fonts.

Yeah, definitely!

> AFAIK, the tool is GPL2, but I had been in contact with the author a
> few years ago, and he might be persuaded into relicensing the tool
> into, say, the FreeType license.

Given that this is not FreeType code I see no reason to do that.  It
should stay as a separate package.


    Werner