Replace KcmFontinst with kio_fonts

[Vadim Plessky]

On Tuesday 11 March 2003 19:02, Craig Drummond wrote:
|  Hi,
|
|  I’d like to propose replacing the existing KControl font installer module
|  with a fonts ioslave. I’ve already started hacking on this (only for a
| couple of days) – but I wanted to ask if people thought that this would be
| a better idea than the KControl module before I went too far. See
|  http://members.lycos.co.uk/cpdrummond/kfontinst-kio.png for a screenshot,
| and http://members.lycos.co.uk/cpdrummond/kfontinst-kio-0.01.tar.gz for the
| source code as is.

As FontConfig is widely presented by now 9and would be on 95% of desktops by 
KDE 3,2 release time), is there any reaosn to have kio_fonts at all?
I also think that current KControl module for fonts configuration is somewhat 
overhead, as it was designed to support legacy applications.

You don't have something like this in case of FontConfig insatlled.
You just copy fonts to some folder (using Konqueror), that's it.
FC would fetch new fonts in 1sec. or so :-)

|
|  When started as non-root fonts:// will list 2 directories; "Personal"
| (which is in fact ~/.fonts) and "System" (usually /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts)
| – and for root it would just go straight into the "System" directory. The
| reason for listing both "System" and "Personal" is so that non-root users
| could see what fonts were installed system-wide. However, I’m not sure if
| this is a good idea or not. I'd like to be able to drag a font over one of
| the "System" folders, get the slave to ask for root's password, copy file
| as root, and then create the fonts.dir, etc files - but I haven't the
| faintest idea how to do this easily.
|
|  The main differences to the KControl module are:
|
|  1. Fontmap is not created/modified. After thinking about this, I don’t
| think that it’s relevant anymore. Most apps embed the fonts in the
| generated ps output. Also, for fonts installed as a normal user – this
| could lead to print previews working (where gs is run as the user, and can
| see his/her fonts directory), and printed output not working (as gs is now
| run as root (via the printer queue) – and no longer looks at the users
| fonts dir).
|  2. As above, the CUPS's Fontmap file is not touched.
|  3. StarOffice is no longer configured. OpenOffice has been out for a while
|  now, and is *much* better anyway.
|  4. AFMs are no-longer generated. These were really only of use for
|  StarOffice <=5.2, and for other apps when using TrueType fonts. However, I
| don't think this is required. AFMs can still be installed - it's just that
| they will not be generated.
|  5. Fonts can't be "enabled" or "disabled" - however this could be
|  accomplished by hiding the fonts, i.e.. naming them ".filename.ttf"
|
|  This leads to *much* less code, which should be easier to maintain - and
|  removes an entry from KControl. Also, it adds the ease of drag-n-drop font
|  installation - also allowing you to copy a file from ftp:// straight into
| fonts://
|
|  I'm 99.99% sure I can get this completed well in advance of the KDE3.2
|  timeframe - most of the work is done, there's just a few niggles left to
| iron out. Also, I plan on adding a few lines to the "startkde" script to
| move KDE's font dir from $KDEHOME/share/fonts to ~/.fonts
|
|  So, shall I continue with this? Or is it better to stay with the KControl
|  module?

IMO, we should stay with KControl module and simplify it, at the same time.

|
|  Craig.

-- 

Best Regards,

Vadim Plessky
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