[Pkg-fonts-devel] Bug#609094: Bug#609094: Bug#609094: fontforge: Fails to build ttf-dejavu

[Khaled Hosny]

You are comparing apples and oranges here. First fonts are not
platform dependant binaries, you need not to compile a font for a
specific architecture/OS to be able to use it. Second, gcc is far far
more stable, tested and reliable than FontForge will ever be
(FontForge's main developer openly admits that he does no QA, and no one
else is actively doing there aren't any regressions tests of any kind).

I'm genuinely asking what the perceived benefit of building fonts from
source (other than "because we can") that motivates distributions to
build fonts from source. I personally can only see cons, so I'm asking
for the pros I missed.

Regards,
 Khaled

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 01:11:04PM +0100, Davide Viti wrote:
> Well, you could apply this thought to any program; you just want use
> it and sometimes you get some gcc bugs
> 
> Regards
> Davide
> 
> Il giorno 18/gen/2011, alle ore 12:26, Khaled Hosny
> <khaledhosny at eglug.org> ha scritto:
> 
> > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:07:20PM +0100, Julien Cristau wrote:
> >> On Thu, Jan  6, 2011 at 21:27:11 +0200, Khaled Hosny wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Wed, Jan 05, 2011 at 08:13:28PM -0800, Daniel Schepler wrote:
> >>>> Package: fontforge
> >>>> Version: 0.0.20100501-4
> >>>> Severity: serious
> >>>
> >>> Bugs like this make wounder if it is wise for distributions to build
> >>> fonts from source instead of just using upstream supplied font files.
> >>>
> >>> I mean, what is the benefit from building from source? I, as a font
> >>> author, I can see many possible problems with no obvious benefit.
> >>>
> >> If we didn't build from source, we wouldn't catch bugs like this.
> >
> > Which is good thing?
> >
> > I mean the purpose of font packages is to be used, not catch FontForge
> > bugs, and there are FontForge bugs that can pass unnoticed at build
> > time.
> >
> > See also:
> > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=600306
> >
> > for a non-bug that just screwed the font up. Another reason why it is
> > not, yet, a good idea to build fonts on your own.
> >
> > (BTW, it is already known that there are places in the code that don't
> > go well with doubles and crashes like this have been reported upstream
> > already, still there are certain tasks that can't be reliably done
> > without building fontforge to use doubles).
> >
> > Regards,
> > Khaled
> >
> > --
> > Khaled Hosny
> > Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
> > Free font developer
> > _______________________________________________
> > Pkg-fonts-devel mailing list
> > Pkg-fonts-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-fonts-devel

-- 
 Khaled Hosny
 Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
 Free font developer