Re: [ft] Can I send/receive FT_*Rec structs via network or RPC?

[Werner LEMBERG]

> Recently I'm trying to build a server hosting the FreeType library
> and cache objects, and clients which request the rendered character
> bitmaps from the server.  The advantage of doing this is the cache
> in the server is highly shared and reused, and the clients are only
> in charge of implementing the system-specific text out procedures.

I think this only works efficiently if you don't use subpixel
rendering...

> The problem is, sending/receiving the data via network or RPC or
> pipes requires marshaling or serialization.  Since there are so many
> embedded pointers in the FT_*Rec structs, and some of them even have
> private members, how do I fully serializing them?  Not only do I
> need the final FT_Bitmap, but also I need many metrics and flags
> stored in FT_Face and FT_Size, etc.

What you want to do is something FreeType hasn't been designed for.

> One way to solve this problem is to wrap every client-needed field
> into a RPC function, or network request.  When the client
> implementation gets more and more complicated, the RPC interface may
> become messy, and the network protocol would be difficult to
> maintain.  Is there any routine way to achieve this?

I don't think so.


    Werner