Subject: [bug#40708] gnu: font-gnu-unifont: Unify outputs for fonts.

From: Raghav Gururajan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 May 2020 00:54:05 -0400

Hi Leo!

Sorry for the delayed response.

> Unifont provides TrueType, PCF, and PSF. It does not have OTF fonts.

That's correct. I was suggesting a scenario of using more than one type. :-)

> Currently, if a user installs 'font-gnu-unifont' they get TrueType
> fonts.
> 
> On the other hand, the PSF fonts can be used in the bootloader and the
> Linux console, and they are only 68 kilobytes, rather than ~22 megabytes
> if you combine all the font outputs. I don't see a compelling reason for
> that increase.

OK. I think of two reasons: 1) If one installs this package with
suggested patch, the user can use unifont for any purpose as they wish.
It may be application (ttf), console/grub (psf) and/or display server
(pcf). 2) The setup will be consistent with other font packages, where
the package installs fonts with all the types it can provide.

> If the problem is that packages with multiple outputs are confusing, we
> should try to improve the UI, and we shouldn't use multiple outputs if
> there isn't a good reason. But this is a case where I think it makes
> sense.

Improving UI would be good too. Regarding multiple outputs, I think it
is good enough to separate libs, bins and docs. In this packages, we
already separated bin and fonts. I suggest that we shall not separate
fonts further into it's subtypes. That is all I ask. :-)

Regards,
RG.