[Foundation-l] Software Policy Draft

Tue Sep 4 05:01:59 UTC 2007

Hoi,
Fonts are an absolute pain when you do not have them, When they can be found
in the first place, they are not consistent in their behaviour and size. The
notion that because of there being a font for one operating system there is
one for another is simply wrong.

By putting this policy into concrete, we assume responsibilities that we do
not have at this time. Helping sort out the mess that is what fonts are is
one.

Thanks,
     GerardM

On 9/3/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 9/3/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > There are many languages that are problematic including Khmer, Cherokee
> and
> > Burmese.
>
> Cherokee is supported by several fonts. Support for it is included in
> many linux desktops, including the Fedora system which is on my
> laptop.
>
> Myanmar (Burmese) is supported by a free font
> (http://www.myanmarnlp.net.mm/opentype.htm). The language also has
> some more demands on the layout and rendering engine (it has to
> support a lot of face substitution).. but Myanmar is supported on free
> systems either using the Pango myanmar module or the m17n package.
>
> Free fonts for Khmer can be found at
> http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/download/fonts. Likewise Khmer
> needs some substitution/layout rules.. Likewise, Khmer is supported by
> m17n and the latest pango.
>
> >Also specifying it as any free font has its pitfalls. There should be
> >fonts for all the big operating systems. When we want to adopt a policy
> >like the one that is being discussed, we should actively support our
> >users.
>
> Just about all fonts of interest are available in truetype form.
> They'll run on all "major operating systems".
>
> > When you want to have a strict policy about Free and unencumbered
> software,
> > you have to accept the consequences and enable people to use Free and
> > unencumbered software. This does include fonts.
>
> No, actually it doesn't include fonts. No one has made this argument
> has actually be able to produce an example of a actual gap related to
> fonts and if found no such gap would exist for long due to the lack of
> copyrightability of the font faces themselves, if nothing else.
>
> Fonts simply are not an area where there is any conflict with free
> software, nor in area where there should ever be a conflict.
>
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