# status

second revision, usable but may change.


# intro

fontsrv is a translation service for fonts.  given a font query, a
path to an Inferno font is returned.  the command-line options and
rules file configure how queries are translated and which fonts are
available.  the basic functionality of translating a query is
provided by fontsrv through 9P2000:  a write to the "lookup" file
sets the query, a subsequent read retrieves the font path.

wm/showfont is a simple program to lookup & display fonts.

see the manual page for more information.

the translation service is not normally used directly.  libdraw can
be changed to lookup font paths.  the sources of these paths are:

- Font.open calls in limbo programs
- "-font" options in the Tk library

Font.open calls have to be modified in limbo code:  prepending the
program name followed by a dot makes it a valid font query.

libtk, and the tkclient(2) and wmclient(2) libraries can be
modified to prepend a program name to each parameter to "-font".
thus, in tk, the form "fontnames.styles.sizes" must be used.  the
program name is initially set to the title of the window.  it can
be changed by the new tk command "topname".

modifications to libdraw and libtk are implemented by inferno-fontsrv.diff,
a diff against the inferno-os repository.  it also changes limbo
programs that call Font.open, and enables the freetype byte code
interpreter.  this patch should be considered experimental.  after
installing it, look at /fonts/fixed/ and /fonts/ttf/ for instructions
on fetching additional fonts.


# install

make sure $ROOT is set.  now "mk install" to compile and install the
files.

when building from within inferno, insert SYSHOST=Inferno and ROOT=
in the mk invocations to override the values in the mkconfig.

also see the patch described in the "intro" section of this file.


# latest version

the latest version can be found at:

	http://www.ueber.net/code/r/fontsrv


# licence & author

all files are in the public domain.  this code has been written by
mechiel lukkien, reachable at mechiel@ueber.net.


# todo

- selection based on glyph ranges in a font?
- perhaps use entire font height as font size?  or fudge the knownfonts[] a bit more?