[Xquartz-dev] The 2.1.0 package and Apple System Fonts

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

+ Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche at math.ntnu.no>:

> I guess the system font directories are much more magical than I had
> thought possible.

Now just some idle speculation here before I head off to bed: Assuming
that Xquartz actually use some of the built-in functionality in OS X
to handle fonts, then these hangs may actually make sense. The thing
is that fonts tend to have unique identifiers, which are then used to
keep track of them internally.  So if Xquartz comes along with a font
that has the same identifier as a font already in use by the system,
then chaos could easily happen.  Even if the two fonts are actually
the same font.  If I am right, then using the system fonts requires
using the appropriate protocol for using those fonts, or else.  But as
I indicated, that is idle speculation, just based on what little I
know about PostScript fonts and various vague memories of stuff I may
have read, or maybe I invented those memories.  (Too tired to think
straight.)

- Harald