[Bug 13600] allow using glyphs from mlutiple fonts in font substitution

[wine-bugs at winehq.org]

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13600





--- Comment #27 from Michal Suchanek <hramrach at centrum.cz>  2008-06-06 10:25:38 ---
(In reply to comment #26)
> (In reply to comment #25)
> > > Then I don't see any Wine bug, all you have to do is to properly configure
> > > font replacements/substitutes, and that's not a Wine problem.
> > > 
> > And change the substitutions every time I want to run an application that uses
> > a different language because there is no universal font and wine does not have
> > the functionality to use multiple fonts for the purpose.
> 
> That's not different from Windows when required font is missing in
> the underlying system.

Yes, but Wine is not about replicating all deficiencies of Windows. It could do
better sometimes ;-)

> 
> > That's why I wanted the possibility to use glyphs from multiple fonts for
> > substitution.
> 
> That possibility is implemented in Wine, but you need either install missing
> fonts, or properly configure font replacements/substitutes.

I do have the MS Japanese fonts substituted.

> 
> I'm tempted to close this bug as invalid. You're claming that something is
> wrong but don't want to do a thing to fix your font config, or install missing
> fonts.
> 

I do fix my config. But I do see a deficiency in how it has to be done. On
Windows there is an application that allows setting up the environment for
legacy applications so that one can run legacy applications in different
languages which would be roughly equivalent to running wine under different
locales. Admittedly this impacts some other applications, probably because they
are also legacy applications that do not use the Unicode interfaces. And this
is probably what the Wine font linking would be like if it worked.

There is apparently some attempt at such support which is probably what is
called font linking: when wine is run in different locales some fonts are
substituted in different way, automatically.

However, this feature is largely unknown. When searching for it on the web I
found a FAQ entry on the Wine wiki claiming Wine does not support it, and an
old NEWS file pointing to a changelog that says the feature is implemented.

Also this feature does not work for real world applications. This is because
not enough fonts are linked. My application works on Windows, works if fonts
are linked manually but does not work with Wine automatic font linking. This is
the simplest application possible so it is probably how applications would be
(and seem to be) written.

Also font linking is undocumented and relies on existence of some random fonts
so even if the feature worked correctly it is unlikely that it would be useful
for actual users. On the other hand, I do not wonder the feature is listed as
unimplemented in the FAQ. It simply does not work.

The ability to compose fonts in substitutions or otherwise would obviate the
need to automatically link fonts as a compound font that contains glyphs for
all ranges the user wants to read could be created. Maybe that should not be
done in wine but in something like Freetype. However, the current state of
things is that applications do this in their own way - including the Wine's
attempt at font linking.


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