Re: [vile] Some issues/features (X fonts)

[lists-vile]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 05:12:35PM -0400, Thomas Dickey wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Chris G wrote:
> 
> >On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 01:27:34PM +0200, Gary Jennejohn wrote:
> >>On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 05:17:16 -0400 (EDT)
> >>Thomas Dickey <address@hidden> wrote:
> >>
> >>>That, and working on a different X driver were my current plan.
> >>>
> >>
> >>A different X driver?  What does that mean concretely?  I personally am
> >>quite happy with XVile.
> >>
> >Well, so am I, except for one thing - the available typefaces.  I'm
> >tending to use vile in a terminal nowadays in preference to xvile
> >because the available typefaces (gnome-terminal and/or xcfe4-terminal)
> >are *so* much nicer than those available in xvile.
> >
> >Will the 'different X driver' make more typefaces available?
> 
> That's pretty much what's driving it (pun).
> 
> Actually, I _could_ make a compile-time option to use Xft/fontconfig,
> which would work.  However, the TrueType fonts which you're likely to
> be using are generally small, poor coverage of the Unicode range.
> The workaround used in vte, etc., is to use fontsets (by whatever name),
> and I'm curious about the tradeoffs (size/time) available from some of
> the toolkits.

A compile time option would be great!  I know everyone has their own opinions,
I'd always opt for the old X fonts as I edit all of my code using the
misc-fixed as distributed as part of the X11 distribution.  I find them to be
much faster when dealing with large files, no annoying flicker when scrolling. 
In fact I usually build XVile linked with the basic X11 interface.  When
fontconfig works it's great, but I've found its documentation to be less than
helpful.

Wayne