[lltx] luaotfload maintenance

[Khaled Hosny]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 08:45:30AM +0100, Joseph Wright wrote:
> On 15/06/2012 02:50, Khaled Hosny wrote:
> > After so many not so successful attempts to sync luaotfload with ConTeXt
> > font code, I gave up. It is simply to much effort for little (personal)
> > gain. I was mainly worried about having two incompatible OpenType
> > implementations, but I'd rather not have my fonts working with LuaLaTeX
> > at all, than spending all that time an effort.
> > 
> > Any way, the code was just accumulating bugs and no one is working on
> > it, so, unless someone stands up to maintain that code, I'm going to
> > declare it unmaintained and essentially an abandonware.
> > 
> > Regards,
> >  Khaled
> 
> Hello Khaled,
> 
> I'm sure everyone on the list is very grateful to you for the hard work
> you have put in here.

Elie Roux did all the hard work, I was merely maintaining it, but it is
just too much for my limited capabilities.

> Can I ask for your 'parting thoughts' on the best way to proceed. You've
> tried to keep the code in sync with ConTeXt, and have clearly found that
> at least for you this was not sustainable. Would you recommend starting
> from scratch, starting from where luaotfload is now and working
> independently of ConTeXt or trying to get back in sync?

It depends on whoever will do the job, writing an OpenType engine is a
huge undertaking, I wouldn't dare doing it myself (even for one like
Hans and after several years, ConTeXt's OpenType engine still lacks
things like Indic support, and not every OpenType aspect is well
tested).

The hardest part in syncing with ConTeXt is regressions and coordinating
bug reports in fixes with Hans (don't get me wrong, Hans is a nice
person, but it is me who does not communicate well).

Another approach would be to go HarfBuzz w/ FreeType route, but this
will require binary modules with all its problem, and still quite some
effort to get it well integrated, but in turn we get a world class
OpenType engine for free.

Regards,
 Khaled