Re: CVS commit: pkgsrc/fonts/dejavu-ttf

["J. Lewis Muir" <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost>]

On 07/27, David Holland wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 10:33:15AM -0500, J. Lewis Muir wrote:
>  > Would depending on fontconfig pull in X11 things?
> 
> Fontconfig *is* an X11 thing.
> 
> % which fc-cache
> /usr/X11R7/bin/fc-cache
 
Hmm, well, I don't know much about this, but that seems wrong to me.  I
previously quoted the Fontconfig website which says that it "does not
depend on the X Window System in any fashion," so I don't understand why
it's under /usr/X11R7/bin.  It seems that Xft cannot be used without
Fontconfig, but Fontconfig *can* be used without Xft and X11.  FWIW, on
RHEL 7, fc-cache (along with various other fc-* programs) is installed
in /usr/bin via the fontconfig RPM:

----
$ type fc-cache
fc-cache is /usr/bin/fc-cache
$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/fc-cache
fontconfig-2.13.0-4.3.el7.x86_64
----

> Maybe it should be in base; this has been suggested before.
 
Hmm, there is X11 in the NetBSD base system, but I know you know that,
so you must mean something else.  I assume by this you mean moving it
out of whatever NetBSD x* binary set related to the X Window System that
it's currently in, and into the NetBSD base binary set (and probably out
of /usr/X11R7/bin, and into /usr/bin).

>  > That last part is what I'm concerned about, though: it sounds like right
>  > now each font package has (or should have) a direct dependency on the
>  > tools needed to prepare or register the fonts for *all* the supported
>  > windowing systems regardless of whether those windowing systems are
>  > installed or used.  It feels like a design that won't scale well to
>  > a large number of windowing systems (or to a windowing system where
>  > the font prepare-and-register tool dependencies are large in size thus
>  > causing pain for users).  But maybe that situation will never occur, so
>  > it doesn't matter.
> 
> It's not a pressing concern. But yeah, it could be better. The
> underlying problem is that there is no native font handling in Unix,
> and the stuff we originally got with X sucked, so there are now lots
> of font users and lots of font services that all interoperate poorly
> and all have their own widgetry.
> 
> https://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/fonthandling/

Ah, interesting; didn't know about that project.  Thanks!  It's clear
you've thought about this problem more thoroughly than I have.

Lewis