Feature request for DVIPS... (at the last minute?)

["Melissa O'Neill" <oneill@cs.sfu.ca>]

Current web2c-TeX/teTeX has the feature of calling MakeTeXTFM and
MakeTeXPK whenever it cannot find a TFM or PK file it needs. This can
be very useful when supporting esoteric things like on-the-fly instance
generation for multiple-master fonts. However, if DVIPS can't find the
PFA/PFB file it needs, it generates an error.

It'd be really neat if DVIPS called a MakeTeXPFA script that could
attempt to provide the necessary font if DVIPS couldn't find it. This
would make it possible to use DVIPS with something like Eddie Kohler's
mmpfb program to generate stand-alone MM instances on the fly (these
could then pass through DVIPS's usual font subsetting machinery).

As things stand right now, printing with multiple master fonts can be
problematic since they're difficult subset properly -- a single font
can be shared by multiple instances. Thus, another useful fix would be
to get DVIPS's font subsetting machinery to work correctly with
multiple-master fonts (and all fonts that might have different PostScript
font names from the same PFA/PFB file).

Given the whole dvips vs. dvipsk business, I'm not sure who would be
best suited to implementing MakeTeXPFA functionality (assuming others
would also find it useful), hence my sending this message to three key
players and CCing it to all the tex-fonts people.

Thoughts welcome,

    Melissa.