On Mon, 22 Oct 2007, Eeri Kask wrote:
(I always considered the significantly simpler approach being enough: the user in enabling TWM_USE_XFT voluntarily passes "the point of no return"; if xft-font problems arise, then these are to be solved.)
Well, that's the point. As you have it, the end user does _not_ in fact decide on TWM_USE_XFT. The distributor does.
I not quite sure if this is the essential point in our case who and how compiles twm, but which fonts are installed and what stands in system.twmrc for a user not wishing to touch the default, distributor-provided configuration.
Having not verified, but I strongly suspect if starting the unmodified twm having first removed the 'misc/' font directory entirely, then X is not going to find 'fixed', and as of now, twm refuses to start. It appears, 'fixed' is an alias to something like '-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1' according to misc/fonts.alias; and the key is, this name is XLFD compliant.
So, luckily we are now a step closed to the solution: let's not use 'fixed' as coded-in-default in twm.c if TWM_USE_XFT is defined, but '-*-fixed-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*', and neither XListFonts() nor XftFontOpenXlfd() have any further difficulties! (Is XListFonts() supposed to translate font alias names at all?) This looks a good idea, in fact this is what you suggested first: let XListFonts() resolve 'fixed' and then use it. Now we know how to do that. :-)
(As a backside, we then remove the flexibility in twm to use the 'fixed'-alias-redirection to an arbitrary font.)
First, the X server does not even start if it cannot resolve 'fixed'. In that case, whether or not `twm` starts is a moot point.
Secondly, there are likely to be .twmrc's out there that specify other aliases, such as '7x13' and so on. Thus, it is important to fall back to a raster font when Xft cannot resolve a font name, whether or not that name is a default. This makes it unnecessary to change twm's default font names.
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