Re: [ft-devel] FreeType patches to support amalgamation

[Vinnie]

> From: Alexei Podtelezhnikov <address@hidden>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 8:28 AM
>
> It is hard to believe that there are people who'll dive into font rendering
> without first learning how to use multiple files and libraries in a project.

I agree, it is hard to believe but that's just how it is. For some reason,
implementing a synthesizer or sampler audio plugin has tremendous
appeal for non-programmers. I have no explanation but if you want to
witness this phenomenon yourself, please visit these heavily trafficked
pages:

"README - For non-programmers with great ideas"
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194452

"How Do I Create VST Plugins? Information for those just getting started"
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329696

"What are the most important parts of C++ for coding plug-ins?"
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52342

> It is easier to teach them about libraries anyway.

But even easier to provide a single compressed archive containing
sources with no external dependencies, and a project file for each
supported build environment which can be opened and built without
any additional steps.

> Freetype is available on MacOS as a library. Why not use it?

FreeType is not available under Windows. Sure I could add some
scaffolding to allow the GNU/Linux/X Windows and Mac OS X projects
to use the built-in operating system provided FreeType, but this
creates new problems. What if the version of FreeType on the user's
system is different? Furthermore it would be necessary to add some
conditional compilation to detect the build environment, and now we
have source code that starts to diverge across platforms. Carrying
this to its logical conclusion and we would have .mk files, a
CONFIGURE script, the necessity for additional build tools, etc...

On the other hand I could just include the FreeType sources or
amalgamation with my open source project and ignore the system
provided headers and library. This bypasses all of the problems
previously mentioned, and has the benefit that compilation and
execution becomes completely predictable.