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.\" $Xorg: fontlib.ms,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:42:42 cpqbld Exp $
.EF 'Font Library Interface'- % -'July 27, 1991'
.OF 'Font Library Interface'- % -'July 27, 1991'
.EH ''''
.OH ''''
.TL
The X Font Library
.AU
Keith Packard
.AI
MIT X Consortium
.AU
David Lemke
.AI
Network Computing Devices
.LP
This document describes the data structures and interfaces for using the X
Font library. It is intended as a reference for programmers building X
and Font servers. You may want to refer to the following documents:
.IP \(bu 5
"Definition of the Porting Layer for the X v11 Sample Server" for a
discussion on how this library interacts with the X server
.IP \(bu 5
"Font Server Implementation Overview" which discusses the design of the font
server.
.IP \(bu 5
"Bitmap Distribution Format" which covers the contents of the bitmap font
files which this library reads; although the library is capable of reading
other formats as well, including non-bitmap fonts.
.IP \(bu 5
"The X Font Service Protocol" for a description of the constraints placed on
the design by including support for this font service mechanism.
.LP
This document assumes the reader is familiar with the X server design, the
X protocol as it relates to fonts and the C programming language. As with
most MIT produced documentation, this relies heavily on the source code, so
have a listing handy.
.NH 1
Requirements for the Font library
.LP
To avoid miles of duplicate code in the X server, the font server and the
various font manipulation tools, the font library should provide interfaces
appropriate for all of these tasks. In particular, the X server and font
server should be able to both use the library to access disk based fonts,
and to communicate with a font server. By providing a general library, we
hoped to avoid duplicating code between the X server and font server.
.LP
Another requirement is that the X server (or even a font server) be able to
continue servicing requests from other clients while awaiting a response
from the font server on behalf of one client. This is the strongest
requirement placed on the font library, and has warped the design in curious
ways. Because both the X server and font server are single threaded, the
font library must not suspend internally, rather it returns an indication of
suspension to the application which continues processing other things, until
the font data is ready, at which time it restarts the suspended request.
.LP
Because the code for reading and manipulating bitmap font data is used by
the font applications "mkfontdir" and "bdftopcf", the font library includes
bitmap-font specific interfaces which those applications use, instead of the
more general interfaces used by the X and font servers, which are unaware of
the source of the font data. These routines will be refered to as the
bitmap font access methods.
.NH 1
General Font Library Interface details.
.LP
To avoid collision between the #define name space for errors, the Font
library defines a new set of return values:
.Cs
#define AllocError 80
#define StillWorking 81
#define FontNameAlias 82
#define BadFontName 83
#define Suspended 84
#define Successful 85
#define BadFontPath 86
#define BadCharRange 87
#define BadFontFormat 88
#define FPEResetFailed 89
.Ce
.LP
Whenever a routine returns \fBSuspended\fP, the font library will notify the
caller (via the ClientSignal interface described below) who should then
reinvoke the same routine again with the same arguments.
.NH 1
Font Path Elements
.LP
At the center of the general font access methods used by X and fs is the
Font Path Element data structure. Like most structures in the X server,
this contains a collection of data and some function pointers for
manipulating this data:
.Cs
/* External view of font paths */
typedef struct _FontPathElement {
int name_length;
char *name;
int type;
int refcount;
pointer private;
} FontPathElementRec, *FontPathElementPtr;
typedef struct _FPEFunctions {
int (*name_check) ( /* name */ );
int (*init_fpe) ( /* fpe */ );
int (*reset_fpe) ( /* fpe */ );
int (*free_fpe) ( /* fpe */ );
int (*open_font) ( /* client, fpe, flags,
name, namelen, format,
fid, ppfont, alias */ );
int (*close_font) ( /* pfont */ );
int (*list_fonts) ( /* client, fpe, pattern,
patlen, maxnames, paths */ );
int (*start_list_fonts_with_info) (
/* client, fpe, name, namelen,
maxnames, data */ );
int (*list_next_font_with_info) (
/* client, fpe, name, namelen,
info, num, data */ );
int (*wakeup_fpe) ( /* fpe, mask */ );
int (*client_died) ( /* client, fpe */ );
} FPEFunctionsRec, FPEFunctions;
.Ce
.LP
The function pointers are split out from the data structure to save memory;
additionally, this avoids any complications when initializing the data
structure as there would not be any way to discover the appropriate function
to call (a chicken and egg problem).
.LP
When a font path type is initialized, it passes the function pointers to the
server which are then stored in an FPEFunctionsRec. Each function is
described below in turn.
.NH 2
(*name_check)
.LP
Each new font path member is passed to this function; if the return value
is Successful, then the FPE recognises the format of the string. This does
not guarantee that the FPE will be able to successfully use this member.
For example, the disk-based font directory file "fonts.dir" may be
corrupted, this will not be detected until the font path is initialized.
This routine never returns \fBSuspended\fP.
.NH 2
(*init_fpe)
.LP
Initialize a new font path element. This function prepares a new font path
element for other requests: the disk font routine reads the "fonts.dir" and
"fonts.alias" files into the internal format, while the font server routine
connects to the requested font server and prepares for using it. This
routine returns Successful if everything went OK, otherwise the return value
indicates the source of the problem. This routine never returns \fBSuspended\fP.
.NH 2
(*reset_fpe)
.LP
When the X font path is reset, and some of the new members are also in the
old font path, this function is called to reinitialize those FPEs. This
routine returns Successful if everything went OK. It returns FPEResetFailed
if (for some reason) the reset failed, and the caller should remove the old
FPE and simply create a new one in its place. This is used by the
disk-based fonts routine as resetting the internal directory structures
would be more complicated than simply having destroying the old and creating
a new.
.NH 2
(*free_fpe)
.LP
When the server is finished with an FPE, this function is called to dispose
of any internal state. It should return Successful, unless something
terrible happens.
.NH 2
(*open_font)
.LP
This routine requests that a font be opened. The client argument is used
by the font library only in connection with suspending/restarting the
request. The flags argument specifies some behaviour for the library and can
be any of:
.Cs
/* OpenFont flags */
#define FontLoadInfo 0x0001
#define FontLoadProps 0x0002
#define FontLoadMetrics 0x0004
#define FontLoadBitmaps 0x0008
#define FontLoadAll 0x000f
#define FontOpenSync 0x0010
.Ce
.LP
The various fields specify which portions of the font should be loaded at
this time. When FontOpenSync is specified, this routine will not return
until all of the requested portions are loaded. Otherwise, this routine may
return \fBSuspended\fP. When the presented font name is actually an alias
for some other font name, FontName Alias is returned, and the actual font
name is stored in the location pointed to by the \fIalias\fP argument as a
null-terminated string.
.NH 2
(*close_font)
.LP
When the server is finished with a font, this routine disposes of any
internal state and frees the font data structure.
.NH 2
(*list_fonts)
.LP
The \fIpaths\fP argument is a data structure which will be filled with all
of the font names from this directory which match the specified pattern. At
most \fImaxnames\fP will be added. This routine may return \fBSuspended\fP.
.NH 2
(*start_list_fonts_with_info)
.LP
This routine sets any internal state for a verbose listing of all fonts
matching the specified pattern. This routine may return \fBSuspended\fP.
.NH 2
(*list_next_font_with_info)
.LP
To avoid storing huge amounts of data, the interface for ListFontsWithInfo
allows the server to get one reply at a time and forward that to the
client. When the font name returned is actually an alias for some other
font, \fBFontNameAlias\fP will be returned. The actual font name is return
instead, and the font alias which matched the pattern is returned in the
location pointed to by data as a null-terminated string. The caller can
then get the information by recursively listing that font name with a
maxnames of 1. When \fBSuccessful\fP is returned, the matching font name is
returned, and a FontInfoPtr is stored in the location pointed to by
\fIdata\fP. \fIData\fP must be initialized with a pointer to a FontInfoRec
allocated by the caller. When the pointer pointed to by \fIdata\fP is not
left pointing at that storage, the caller mustn't free the associated
property data. This routine may return \fBSuspended\fP.
.NH 2
(*wakeup_fpe)
.LP
Whenever an FPE function has returned Suspended, this routine is called
whenever the application wakes up from waiting for input (from select(2)).
This mask argument should be the value returned from select(2).
.NH 2
(*client_died)
.LP
When an FPE function has returned \fBSuspended\fP and the associated client
is being destroyed, this function allows the font library to dispose of any
state associated with that client.
.NH 1
Fonts
.LP
The data structure which actually contains the font information has changed
significantly since previous releases; it now attempts to hide the actual
storage format for the data from the application, providing accessor
functions to get at the data. This allows a range of internal details for
different font sources. The structure is split into two pieces, so that
ListFontsWithInfo can share information from the font when it has been
loaded. The FontInfo structure, then, contains only information germane to
LFWI.
.Cs
typedef struct _FontInfo {
unsigned short firstCol; /* range of glyphs for this font */
unsigned short lastCol;
unsigned short firstRow;
unsigned short lastRow;
unsigned short defaultCh; /* default character index */
unsigned int noOverlap:1; /* no combination of glyphs overlap */
unsigned int terminalFont:1; /* Character cell font */
unsigned int constantMetrics:1; /* all metrics are the same */
unsigned int constantWidth:1; /* all character widths are the same*/
unsigned int inkInside:1; /* all ink inside character cell */
unsigned int inkMetrics:1; /* font has ink metrics */
unsigned int allExist:1; /* no missing chars in range */
unsigned int drawDirection:2; /* left-to-right/right-to-left*/
unsigned int cachable:1; /* font needn't be opened each time*/
unsigned int anamorphic:1; /* font is strangely scaled */
short maxOverlap; /* maximum overlap amount */
short pad; /* unused */
xCharInfo maxbounds; /* glyph metrics maximums */
xCharInfo minbounds; /* glyph metrics minimums */
xCharInfo ink_maxbounds; /* ink metrics maximums */
xCharInfo ink_minbounds; /* ink metrics minimums */
short fontAscent; /* font ascent amount */
short fontDescent; /* font descent amount */
int nprops; /* number of font properties */
FontPropPtr props; /* font properties */
char *isStringProp; /* boolean array */
} FontInfoRec, *FontInfoPtr;
.Ce
.LP
The font structure, then, contains a font info record, the format of the
bits in each bitmap and the functions which access the font records (which
are stored in an opaque format hung off of fontPrivate).
.Cs
typedef struct _Font {
int refcnt;
FontInfoRec info;
char bit; /* bit order: LSBFirst/MSBFirst */
char byte; /* byte order: LSBFirst/MSBFirst */
char glyph; /* glyph pad: 1, 2, 4 or 8 */
char scan; /* glyph scan unit: 1, 2 or 4 */
fsBitmapFormat format; /* FS-style format (packed) */
int (*get_glyphs) ( /* font, count, chars, encoding, count, glyphs */ );
int (*get_metrics) ( /* font, count, chars, encoding, count, glyphs */ );
int (*get_bitmaps) (/* client, font, flags, format,
flags, nranges, ranges, data_sizep,
num_glyphsp, offsetsp, glyph_datap,
free_datap */ );
int (*get_extents) (/* client, font, flags, nranges,
ranges, nextentsp, extentsp */);
void (*unload_font) ( /* font */ );
FontPathElementPtr fpe; /* FPE associated with this font */
pointer svrPrivate; /* X/FS private data */
pointer fontPrivate; /* private to font */
pointer fpePrivate; /* private to FPE */
int maxPrivate; /* devPrivates (see below) */
pointer *devPrivates; /* ... */
} FontRec, *FontPtr;
.Ce
.LP
Yes, there are several different private pointers in the Font structure; they
were added haphazardly until the devPrivate pointers were added. Future
releases may remove some (or all) of the specific pointers, leaving only the
devPrivates mechanism.
.LP
There are two similar interfaces implemented - get_glyphs/get_metrics and
get_bitmaps/get_extents. Too little time caused the font-server specific
interfaces to be placed in the font library (and portions duplicated in each
renderer) instead of having them integrated into the font server itself.
This may change. The X server uses only get_glyphs/get_metrics, and those
will not change dramatically. Each of the routines is described below
.NH 2
(*get_glyphs)
.LP
This routine returns CharInfoPtrs for each of the requested characters in
the font. If the character does not exist in the font, the default
character will be returned, unless no default character exists in which case
that character is skipped. Thus, the number of glyphs returned will not
always be the same as the number of characters passed in.
.NH 2
(*get_metrics)
.LP
This is similar to (*get_glyphs) except that pointers to xCharInfo
structures are returned, and, if the font has ink metrics, those are
returned instead of the bitmap metrics.
.NH 2
(*get-bitmaps)
.LP
This packs the glyph image data in the requested format and returns it. The
ranges/nranges argument specify the set of glyphs from the font to pack
together.
.NH 2
(*get_extents)
.LP
This returns the metrics for the specified font from the specified ranges.
.LP
.NH 2
(*unload_font)
.LP
This is called from the FPE routine (*close_font), and so should not ever be
called from the application.
.NH 2
maxPrivate
.LP
When initializing a new font structure, maxPrivate should be set to -1
so that the FontSetPrivate() macro works properly with an index of 0.
Initializing maxPrivate to 0 can cause problems if the server tries to set
something at index 0.