Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!dkuug!iesd!iesd.auc.dk!fj From: fj@iesd.auc.dk (Frank Jensen) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: Why not change METAFONT to produce pk fonts? Message-ID: Date: 27 Nov 90 14:11:56 GMT References: <527@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca> <1990Nov25.194312.16829@wsrcc.com> Sender: news@iesd.auc.dk (UseNet News) Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Aalborg Lines: 44 In-reply-to: gm@wsrcc.com's message of 25 Nov 90 19:43:12 GMT In article <...> gm@wsrcc.com (Greg McGary) writes: jtc@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (J.T. Conklin) writes: >Has anyone considered changing METAFONT's output font format from gf >to pk fonts? What are the drawbacks of doing this? GF format contains "specials" in addition to the raster. Specials are not included in the PK format, since only the raster is typically used by DVI drivers for document production. So, PK is *not* a substitue for GF. [...] The PK format allows "specials" to occur between individual character packets (but not inside the raster data itself). I'm not sure whether "proof" output from Metafont contains specials in the "middle" of a character; certainly(?), it doesn't need to do that as the proof annotations could easily be specified outside the raster part of the data. So, I would conclude that the PK format could be used as a substitute for the GF format. The question now becomes: Has anyone considered changing the GF format to use the compression techniques employed by the PK format? At this late date in the evolution of METAFONT, I imagine that Knuth (and the rest of the TeX/MF community) is more concerned about preserving stable, standard interfaces, than saving the CPU cycles it takes to convert GF to PK. I also doubt that anyone is eager to rewrite GFtoDVI, GFtype, or any of the other MFware tools that understand the GF format. Again, stability of standard interfaces is a higher priority than micro-efficiencies. That's a better argument. -- Greg McGary gm@wsrcc.com -or- uunet!wsrcc!gm (703) 318-8698 10310 Main Street, #109, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 ----- Frank Jensen fj@iesd.auc.dk Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Aalborg University DENMARK