Re: [Devel] Compressed PCF fonts

[David Turner]

Hi Werner,

Werner LEMBERG a écrit :
> 
> > I don't really see any benefit in parsing BDF font files in
> > real-time, even less in decompressing and parsing them in real
> > time..
> 
> BDF support with and without compression indeed need not be very
> efficient.  I like to have it just for completeness.
> 
> > While we're at it, why not use XML-based font formats :o)
> 
> Something like Just's fonttool stuff?
>
XML-based formats are the right choice whenever you need to process
structured documents, since it allows you to analyze or transform
the data easily with now tons of libraries and tools..

For Just's FontTool program, which is used for font inspection and
editing, it's simply an excellent choice..

On the other hand, when considering a font engine where what matters
is efficiency (both in performance and footprint) for what is
essentially random access to very fine-grained information, it
simply is way too much overkill..

Most data is stored in databases, and accessed using optimized
algorithms and structure layouts that don't have any ressemblance
to XML, and for very good reasons..

That doesn't prevent XML import/export capabilities by the way to
match the best of all worlds :o)


Cheers,

- David