Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think!linus!linus!ramsdell
From: ramsdell@linus.mitre.org (John D. Ramsdell)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Rational for the location of TeX fonts
Message-ID: <114503@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 24 Jul 90 15:27:19 GMT
Reply-To: ramsdell@mitre.org
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA
Lines: 11

I have always wondered why TeX font files are stored in the particular
directories given by most TeX distributions.  Consider this: the
library directory for METAFONT contains just the data one needs to
process METAFONT source files.  It stands to reason that the library
directory for TeX should contain just the data one needs to process
TeX source files, which includes TeX font metric files, but not the
generic font files or any of the other related font formats.  Why
aren't the fonts files for printing and previewing stored in a
separate library directory, called say DVI, along with any other data
required to processes DVI files?
John