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On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Nilesh Govindarajan |
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<contact@××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> Somebody on twitter told me that Ubuntu uses a special patch for |
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> freetype that improves font rendering manifolds. |
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> |
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> So I rebuilt freetype with these useflags: +auto-hinter +bindist |
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> |
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> What is the difference between this unpatented auto hinter and the |
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> TrueType BC interpreter? |
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|
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The "auto-hinter" USE flag enables the old auto-hinter code that was |
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used before the bytecode interpreter patents expired (which happened |
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in 2010). The bytecode interpreter is now the default and is |
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considered to be the best-performing option. |
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|
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"Since May 2010, all patents related to bytecode hinting have expired |
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worldwide. It it thus no longer necessary to disable the bytecode |
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interpreter, and starting with FreeType version 2.4, it is enabled by |
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default." (according to http://www.freetype.org/patents.html) |
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|
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I would check with your friend on Twitter to be sure they aren't |
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talking about pre-freetype-2.4 behavior... |
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|
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With regard to Ubuntu's actual patches, here they are: |
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https://launchpadlibrarian.net/76814921/freetype_2.4.4-2ubuntu1.diff.gz |
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|
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There aren't a lot of apparent changes to the actual freetype engine |
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(mostly patching the docs, build system and demos). There are |
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basically no comments, and I can't tell what it's trying to |
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accomplish. |
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