Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven!adm!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Why does a font need an Encoding vector? Message-ID: <1990Nov2.012303.9487@phri.nyu.edu> Date: 2 Nov 90 01:23:03 GMT References: <1990Oct31.225607.10364@phri.nyu.edu> Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System) Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City Lines: 22 amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) writes: > Yup: the font cache. Character bitmaps are stored by name, not by character > code. I once had a LaserWriter crash with a fatal system error by sending > it a font that didn't have an encoding vector... But what if I'm using a font that doesn't get cached? Notice in my example I used setcharwidth not setcachedevice in BuildChar. The reason I did that is because in the real font that I'm building, I need greyscale, which according to the Red Book can't be cached. I'm surprised you managed to crash the LaserWriter that way. According to the Red Book, definefont checks to make sure that Encoding is there, and returns an error if it's not. How did you manage to get an Encoding-less font past definefont? Is it a matter of the documentation being more bullet proof than the actual interpreter? How bad a crash was it? I'm inclined to try it on my LW to see what happens, but I'd like to know that at least power-cycling resets it before I go ahead. -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"