[tex-live] Conflits in gsfonts packge and tex-live distro

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 22 May 2009 George N. White III wrote:

 > On 5/20/09, Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:
 >> On 20 May 2009 George N. White III wrote:
 >>
 >>   > Is it acceptable for TeX Live to make decisions that may create
 >>   > extra problems for people who can't use the orginal URW fonts?
 >>
 >> Which decision had been made by TeX Live?
 >>
 >>  Which (non-existent) "decision" created extra problems?
 >>
 >>  Please explain.
 >>
 >>  Your message is worthless if it only contains such platitudes.
 >>
 >>  It's quite bizarre that the TeX Live team is made responsible
 >>  for all this mess.  George, you obviously are on the wrong
 >>  mailing list.
 
 > Sorry to take so long to respond -- time has been a scarce resource
 > this week.

You are definitely not the only one who needs more time.

 > Most other packages just rely on the "system" fonts, so the issue
 > doesn't arise until a) TeX is installed, and b) there is some
 > crossover with sytem fonts.  This could be a user creating an EPS
 > figure without embedding fonts they assume with be provided by the
 > "printer", or a user adding TeX font dirs to their fontpath in
 > order to get maths glyphs in other applications.

I'm aware of these problems but I don't see any better solution than
that we have now.  It's perfect.  The only problem is that some
"system fonts" cause trouble.  They should be fixed.

 >>  George, if you think that there is something wrong in TeX Live,
 >>  please provide a qualified bug report instead of bothering us
 >>  with arbitrary assumptions.  The TeX Live team doesn't make any
 >>  decisions and is definitely not responsible for other people's
 >>  mistakes.

 > It is a question of whether TeX "plays well with others".  In many
 > respects, CTAN TL keeps to itself by putting everything under one
 > top-level directory.  It is a fact of life, however, that some
 > fonts exists in multiple versions with the same ID and internal
 > FontName, if not the same filename.

If there are different fonts with the same FontName on CTAN or in TeX
Live, please specify them.  This would be a severe bug which has to be
fixed by package authors.  Neither CTAN nor TL modifies any files
provided by others.  If fonts which are not on CTAN are not compliant
with standards (the Type1 spec, in this case), neither CTAN
maintainers nor the TeX Live team can do anything about it.

 > If that isn't bad enough, applications use names like Helvetica for
 > URW NimbusSanL.

No, they use the name "Helvetica" for Helvetica.  And if you send such
a file to a PostScript printer, you don't get anything else but
Helvetica.  Only if ghostscript is involved, you get something else.

 > XeTeX would not be a useful if it was limited to fonts installed
 > with TeX Live.

Yes.  I assume that you agree with me that the broken "system fonts"
should be fixed, or avoided.  XeTeX users should better use TeX Gyre
fonts instead.  They are available in OTF format, and thus, more
appropriate for XeTeX.  No XeTeX user needs the fonts shipped with gs.
 
 > When TL installs fonts that clash with widely used fonts it is TL
 > that has to change:

Nonsense.  First at all, it has nothing to do with TeX Live.
George, what do you think TeX Live is?

Did you read my previous mails?  I clearly pointed out that the TeX
Live team is not responsible for other people's mistakes.  Everything
in TeX Live is correct, and I already explained where all these
problems come from.

If you think that it's worthwhile to support gsfonts, please proceed.
First of all, read the specs provided by Adobe, and then read the
fontinst manual.  If you have something useful, upload it to CTAN.
I'm looking forward...

I think it's time to stop the discussion now.  You obviously didn't
notice that it's useless.  There is nothing wrong with TeX Live and
thus, nothing will be changed.  If you want to have anything being
changed in TeX Live, upload your stuff to CTAN.  Existing stuff will
not be changed in order to make sure that people can still compile
their old documents.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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