Re: [ft-devel] Differences in gf files.

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I found some differences in gf files `cmr10.600gf' and
> `cmr10.2602gf'. In the gftype output of `cmr10.600gf', in its
> postamble the `loc' defines a pointer to the `boc' command which
> directly points to the character's bitmap data.  But, the file
> `cmr10.2602gf' and most others, in their postambles the `loc'
> defines a pointer to the `xxx1' command which defines some extra
> information about the character and then later gives the character
> bitmap.  Now, Vflib handles fonts only of the type `cmr10.600gf',
> i.e., it does not have provision of handling `xxx1' commands after
> coming from the postamble.  What should I do to solve this problem?
> Should I provide a support for `xxx1' commands?  I have been using
> `cmr10.600gf' for testing and that is why I did not encounter this
> earlier.

*Any* type of GF files should be readable by the FreeType driver.
Most of the `xxx' and `yyy' data at the beginning of the characters
are not useful in general (IIRC, they are only parsed by the `gftodvi'
driver to provide tags and positions for named points).  This is
different to the `xxx' and `yyy' data at the end of the file, which
(by convention only) holds very useful information to classify the
font.

`xxx' and `yyy' data can happen anywhere in a GF file; I thus suggest
that you parse the data and check whether they contain important
keywords like `fontid', `codingscheme', etc., which are very useful to
classify the most important METAFONT fonts like `cm' or `ec'.


    Werner