Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!SUN.COM!dshr
From: dshr@SUN.COM (David Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Re default font id
Message-ID: <8812122007.AA00442@devnull.sun.com>
Date: 12 Dec 88 16:57:28 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 39

> 
> That's wonderful.  But note that uwm, xterm, and a few other "real" clients
> DO use the default font.  Also note that the R3 Xt stuff occasionally reaches
> into GC's to get the default font.
> 
These are all bugs.  Anything that outputs characters using the default font
is a bug.
> 
> In the sense that error messages are currently written in English and not
> obtained from a language translation mechanism, yes.  They should work just
> fine otherwise.
> 
This is a bug.  You are assuming that the encoding of the default font is
ISO Latin 1.

> Fine.  All most applications care about is "a" default font, and as long as
> it works reliably, it's sufficient.
> 
What do you mean,  "works reliably"?  In my book,  it means "produce
legible output".  Assuming that the encoding of a font that happens to
appear in a newly-created GC has ISO Latin 1 encoding is not reliable
in this sense.  Assuming that all the font IDs that appear in newly-created 
GCs are the same,  or refer to the same font,  is also not reliable.

> The above remarks bring up some items which I think need clarification.
> What IS the purpose of the default font?  What operations are considered
> valid for it?  I may have made some incorrect assumptions.  If so, then a
> lot of other "example" code does also, such as uwm and xterm, and I would
> suggest we get them "in proper form", as they are probably being used as
> models by a lot of different people.
> 
They do need to be fixed.  Anyone who wants a font which has ISO Latin 1
encoding but doesn't care about other characteristics should consult
the R3 document about font naming,  and use the conventions there to
express their requirements.  I imagine that xterm,  for example,  has
other requirements such as fixed-pitch,  and the conventions should
be used to express them,  too.

	David.