From: David C. <dc...@gm...> - 2020-01-21 19:23:03
|
Dear Sir, I've just downloaded and started to use FontForge - it looks pretty nifty! I wonder if you need any development help? I have around 30 years of C/C++/Python work experience and I have several degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics subjects. I have a general interest in design and in particular lettering, calligraphy and font design. I also know TeX pretty well. I've got QA experience too, and lots of debugging experience. I've also worked on large codebases where we used bug and memory analysis tools like Valgrind, Flexelint, Coverity and Purify to hunt down elusive bugs. Thanks, David. |
From: Frank T. <fra...@gm...> - 2020-01-21 19:49:34
|
Hi, David. We're hopelessly undermanned, and your skills seem applicable; we'd love to have your help. Most people ultimately work on things that benefit their own workflows. Is there something in particular that you would like to fix or to add? If not, just take a look at the issue tracker <https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues> for something to do and CONTRIBUTING.md <https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md> for how to do it. On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 1:23 PM David Carter <dc...@gm...> wrote: > Dear Sir, > > I've just downloaded and started to use FontForge - it looks pretty nifty! > > I wonder if you need any development help? I have around 30 years of > C/C++/Python work experience and I have several degrees in Computer Science > and Mathematics subjects. I have a general interest in design and in > particular lettering, calligraphy and font design. I also know TeX pretty > well. I've got QA experience too, and lots of debugging experience. I've > also worked on large codebases where we used bug and memory analysis tools > like Valgrind, Flexelint, Coverity and Purify to hunt down elusive bugs. > > Thanks, > David. > > _______________________________________________ > fontforge-devel mailing list > fon...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-devel > http://fontforge.10959.n7.nabble.com/Developer-f3.html > |
From: David C. <dc...@gm...> - 2020-01-21 23:23:48
|
Hi Frank, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I will peruse this list of open items and pick one that I think I can tackle for starters. I am rather busy at the moment (isn't everyone?) with a business to launch and a house and workshop move looming but I want to make this a long term commitment, so will work away at it in the coming months. What I'm saying is that it may take me a bit of time to get up to speed on the code and the method of working, but I will stick with it. I think FF seems like a potentially awesome piece of software that is worthy of developing and I am looking for a C-based project (it could have also been C++, but I think on balance C is much more interesting in many ways) to keep my skills honed. My workflow at the moment is rather general and simple viz-a-viz font design - I need to create some proprietary fonts for use in logos, and also, looking at some tutorials, I think mixing calligraphy and font design seems like a super-rich vein of inspiration and design ideas, but how this all bears on FF is very general really - I'm happy to make contributions in any way I can at this stage. This is to say that it seems that FF currently provides nearly everything that I could need and heaps more besides. That said I logged a support request on SF today to see if anyone knows if dashed/blue/feint guidelines were possible in the Guides layer, so if that turns out to not be possible then I could potentially work on that, but I need to walk before I can run. Meanwhile, I see there are 112 open bugs and 43 crash reports logged so they seem like a more useful place to start, to get familiar with the codebase and the contributing mechanisms. WIth kind regards, David Carter. On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 7:50 PM Frank Trampe <fra...@gm...> wrote: > Hi, David. > > We're hopelessly undermanned, and your skills seem applicable; we'd love > to have your help. Most people ultimately work on things that benefit their > own workflows. Is there something in particular that you would like to fix > or to add? If not, just take a look at the issue tracker > <https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues> for something to do and > CONTRIBUTING.md > <https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md> for > how to do it. > > > On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 1:23 PM David Carter <dc...@gm...> wrote: > >> Dear Sir, >> >> I've just downloaded and started to use FontForge - it looks pretty nifty! >> >> I wonder if you need any development help? I have around 30 years of >> C/C++/Python work experience and I have several degrees in Computer Science >> and Mathematics subjects. I have a general interest in design and in >> particular lettering, calligraphy and font design. I also know TeX pretty >> well. I've got QA experience too, and lots of debugging experience. I've >> also worked on large codebases where we used bug and memory analysis tools >> like Valgrind, Flexelint, Coverity and Purify to hunt down elusive bugs. >> >> Thanks, >> David. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> fontforge-devel mailing list >> fon...@li... >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-devel >> http://fontforge.10959.n7.nabble.com/Developer-f3.html >> > _______________________________________________ > fontforge-devel mailing list > fon...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-devel > http://fontforge.10959.n7.nabble.com/Developer-f3.html > |
From: Fred B. <cop...@ki...> - 2020-01-22 05:14:00
|
Mr. Carter: How good are you at C? Do you have experience with FreeType? Are you good with the GNU Debugger? Would you like to help me add emoji font support (COLR/CPAL) to FontForge? Best, Fred Brennan On Wednesday, January 22, 2020 7:23:27 AM PST David Carter wrote: > Hi Frank, > > Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I will peruse this list of open > items and pick one that I think I can tackle for starters. I am rather > busy at the moment (isn't everyone?) with a business to launch and a house > and workshop move looming but I want to make this a long term commitment, > so will work away at it in the coming months. What I'm saying is that it > may take me a bit of time to get up to speed on the code and the method of > working, but I will stick with it. I think FF seems like a potentially > awesome piece of software that is worthy of developing and I am looking for > a C-based project (it could have also been C++, but I think on balance C is > much more interesting in many ways) to keep my skills honed. > > My workflow at the moment is rather general and simple viz-a-viz font > design - I need to create some proprietary fonts for use in logos, and > also, looking at some tutorials, I think mixing calligraphy and font design > seems like a super-rich vein of inspiration and design ideas, but how this > all bears on FF is very general really - I'm happy to make contributions in > any way I can at this stage. This is to say that it seems that FF > currently provides nearly everything that I could need and heaps more > besides. That said I logged a support request on SF today to see if anyone > knows if dashed/blue/feint guidelines were possible in the Guides layer, so > if that turns out to not be possible then I could potentially work on that, > but I need to walk before I can run. Meanwhile, I see there are 112 open > bugs and 43 crash reports logged so they seem like a more useful place to > start, to get familiar with the codebase and the contributing mechanisms. > > WIth kind regards, > David Carter. |
From: David C. <dc...@gm...> - 2020-01-22 21:26:19
|
Dear Mr Brennan, I've got 30 years experience of C and C++. Last 10-15 years or so mainly C++ but C ever present through libraries etc. I might be rusty on some of the obscure parts of C and certainly parts of stdlib, but I could certainly get by. I first learnt C in university some 31 years ago - my first proper project was a ray tracing algorithm with multiple shading routines - it was really nifty I remember - I think I've still got the code printout somewhere :-) After that I've worked on many C/C++ codebases as part of my career - a few years in comms then in finance. Yes, I can use GDB pretty well. Mainly used VS in the last few years, but started off on VAX, BSD UNIX and Linux machines so the GNU toolchain is still very natural for me. No conscious experience with FreeType. In truth I have little technical experience of working with fonts. I will be learning this as a go along - through development and through design of my own fonts. I've had a look at the colour font stuff and it looks like there would be a lot of work to add it, no? I mean support for colour pickers and so on. I'm not sure it would be the best thing for me to work on to begin with but I'm happy to try, if you are desperate! Please be aware that due to other commitments and so forth (see my original email) my input is possibly going to be a little sporadic at least for the foreseeable. I was thinking it might be better for me to operate in lone wolf mode for the first few months to get up to speed on the codebase and contribution mechanism. If you want please contact me off list - can you see my e-mail address on my postings here? Best wishes, David. On Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 5:14 AM Fred Brennan <cop...@ki...> wrote: > Mr. Carter: > > How good are you at C? > > Do you have experience with FreeType? > > Are you good with the GNU Debugger? > > Would you like to help me add emoji font support (COLR/CPAL) to FontForge? > > Best, > Fred Brennan > > On Wednesday, January 22, 2020 7:23:27 AM PST David Carter wrote: > > Hi Frank, > > > > Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I will peruse this list of > open > > items and pick one that I think I can tackle for starters. I am rather > > busy at the moment (isn't everyone?) with a business to launch and a > house > > and workshop move looming but I want to make this a long term commitment, > > so will work away at it in the coming months. What I'm saying is that it > > may take me a bit of time to get up to speed on the code and the method > of > > working, but I will stick with it. I think FF seems like a potentially > > awesome piece of software that is worthy of developing and I am looking > for > > a C-based project (it could have also been C++, but I think on balance C > is > > much more interesting in many ways) to keep my skills honed. > > > > My workflow at the moment is rather general and simple viz-a-viz font > > design - I need to create some proprietary fonts for use in logos, and > > also, looking at some tutorials, I think mixing calligraphy and font > design > > seems like a super-rich vein of inspiration and design ideas, but how > this > > all bears on FF is very general really - I'm happy to make contributions > in > > any way I can at this stage. This is to say that it seems that FF > > currently provides nearly everything that I could need and heaps more > > besides. That said I logged a support request on SF today to see if > anyone > > knows if dashed/blue/feint guidelines were possible in the Guides layer, > so > > if that turns out to not be possible then I could potentially work on > that, > > but I need to walk before I can run. Meanwhile, I see there are 112 open > > bugs and 43 crash reports logged so they seem like a more useful place to > > start, to get familiar with the codebase and the contributing mechanisms. > > > > WIth kind regards, > > David Carter. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > fontforge-devel mailing list > fon...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-devel > http://fontforge.10959.n7.nabble.com/Developer-f3.html > |
From: Fred B. <cop...@ki...> - 2020-01-23 03:25:44
|
I can see your email address and have sent you an email. Thanks for your offer and I hope to work together soon ! :-) COLR/CPAL is a lot of work but, as I sent you, I have a quite detailed plan on how to get it in, in multiple phases. Best, Fred Brennan On Thursday, January 23, 2020 5:25:57 AM PST David Carter wrote: > Dear Mr Brennan, > > I've got 30 years experience of C and C++. Last 10-15 years or so mainly > C++ but C ever present through libraries etc. I might be rusty on some of > the obscure parts of C and certainly parts of stdlib, but I could > certainly get by. I first learnt C in university some 31 years ago - my > first proper project was a ray tracing algorithm with multiple shading > routines - it was really nifty I remember - I think I've still got the code > printout somewhere :-) After that I've worked on many C/C++ codebases as > part of my career - a few years in comms then in finance. > > Yes, I can use GDB pretty well. Mainly used VS in the last few years, but > started off on VAX, BSD UNIX and Linux machines so the GNU toolchain is > still very natural for me. > > No conscious experience with FreeType. In truth I have little technical > experience of working with fonts. I will be learning this as a go along - > through development and through design of my own fonts. > > I've had a look at the colour font stuff and it looks like there would be a > lot of work to add it, no? I mean support for colour pickers and so on. > I'm not sure it would be the best thing for me to work on to begin with but > I'm happy to try, if you are desperate! Please be aware that due to other > commitments and so forth (see my original email) my input is possibly going > to be a little sporadic at least for the foreseeable. I was thinking it > might be better for me to operate in lone wolf mode for the first few > months to get up to speed on the codebase and contribution mechanism. > > If you want please contact me off list - can you see my e-mail address on > my postings here? > > Best wishes, > David. |
From: Alexandre Risbud-V. <sim...@gm...> - 2020-01-24 03:11:03
|
(Please excuse my bad english!) Hello, If I understood well, your team could use some help on the programming side. I am myself pretty good in C, but I am not sure my talents would be adequate to help you, as I unfortunately have no experience of working with FreeType. Most of my knowledge related to both C and fonts is towards bitmapped fonts, which probably would not be of great help. Could I please have some details about the help that is needed so I can know if it is in my capabilities? I thank you very much! And sorry again for the bad english... Oh well, at least emails don't transmit accents. Le mer. 22 janv. 2020, à 20 h 26, Fred Brennan <cop...@ki...> a écrit : > I can see your email address and have sent you an email. > > Thanks for your offer and I hope to work together soon ! :-) > > COLR/CPAL is a lot of work but, as I sent you, I have a quite detailed > plan on > how to get it in, in multiple phases. > > Best, > Fred Brennan > > On Thursday, January 23, 2020 5:25:57 AM PST David Carter wrote: > > Dear Mr Brennan, > > > > I've got 30 years experience of C and C++. Last 10-15 years or so mainly > > C++ but C ever present through libraries etc. I might be rusty on some > of > > the obscure parts of C and certainly parts of stdlib, but I could > > certainly get by. I first learnt C in university some 31 years ago - my > > first proper project was a ray tracing algorithm with multiple shading > > routines - it was really nifty I remember - I think I've still got the > code > > printout somewhere :-) After that I've worked on many C/C++ codebases as > > part of my career - a few years in comms then in finance. > > > > Yes, I can use GDB pretty well. Mainly used VS in the last few years, > but > > started off on VAX, BSD UNIX and Linux machines so the GNU toolchain is > > still very natural for me. > > > > No conscious experience with FreeType. In truth I have little technical > > experience of working with fonts. I will be learning this as a go along > - > > through development and through design of my own fonts. > > > > I've had a look at the colour font stuff and it looks like there would > be a > > lot of work to add it, no? I mean support for colour pickers and so on. > > I'm not sure it would be the best thing for me to work on to begin with > but > > I'm happy to try, if you are desperate! Please be aware that due to > other > > commitments and so forth (see my original email) my input is possibly > going > > to be a little sporadic at least for the foreseeable. I was thinking it > > might be better for me to operate in lone wolf mode for the first few > > months to get up to speed on the codebase and contribution mechanism. > > > > If you want please contact me off list - can you see my e-mail address on > > my postings here? > > > > Best wishes, > > David. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > fontforge-devel mailing list > fon...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fontforge-devel > http://fontforge.10959.n7.nabble.com/Developer-f3.html > |
From: Fred B. <cop...@ki...> - 2020-01-24 03:13:52
|
Mr. Risbud-Vincent: I will send you privately a similar letter as I sent Mr. Carter. Thank you for your willingness to help! Best, Fred Brennan On Friday, January 24, 2020 11:10:42 AM PST Alexandre Risbud-Vincent wrote: > (Please excuse my bad english!) > Hello, > If I understood well, your team could use some help on the programming > side. I am myself pretty good in C, but I am not sure my talents would be > adequate to help you, as I unfortunately have no experience of working with > FreeType. Most of my knowledge related to both C and fonts is towards > bitmapped fonts, which probably would not be of great help. Could I please > have some details about the help that is needed so I can know if it is in > my capabilities? > I thank you very much! > And sorry again for the bad english... Oh well, at least emails don't > transmit accents. |
From: Jose Da S. <di...@jo...> - 2020-01-27 01:36:59
|
Hi Alexandre, Welcome aboard. I would suggest start with small patches and make your way to bigger and better improvements as your skill improves. If your strength is in bitmaps, you might want to look at the gutils directory and do a diff between 20120731 and today's code in that directory. There are still a few functions in there that do a lot of assumption, and it would be good to improve the code so that it fails cleanly if given bad data. For example a bad file, given, then reverse all memory allocated, and clean house before exiting. The bmp function is one example that is still not touched much yet but could be fortified further. Once you have an idea of what happens in gutils, it will e easier to move to other directories and do further improvments. |
From: Jose Da S. <di...@jo...> - 2020-01-27 01:36:59
|
Hi David, Start with small patches and improvements first instead of trying to tackle a big monster project. This comes with time as you get more familiar with the code. I agree, C is much more interesting. You may want to take a top-down look (to see the forest), but probably try fix from a bottom-up approach. Top down approach can easily fix one thing and break something else (and there are times where the code flipped one way and then another) but doing a bottom-up approach, you can fix a number of lower- level unstable functions that assume data is good (doesn't handle bad data well), and also misses a bit of housecleaning along the way. Keep an eye for improvement, like making code thread-safe/re-entrant code, big/little endian, runs well on modern distros and if you can, older distros, big/little endian. |
From: David C. <dc...@gm...> - 2020-01-27 19:01:30
|
Thank you kindly Jose for your thoughts. I agree small steps to begin with. I've been involved with lots of large codebases where summer interns would come in, write a substantial amount of code which was buggy and full of warnings, and I would spend a few months tidying up the mess afterwards. I never write code in that way. I'm a firm believer in small changes towards a goal. I'm also a big fan of TDD but I'm guessing there are no unit tests for this project. It is never too late. I can see that FF is a very complex piece of work, so will need 'kid gloves'. I see there are a number of crash reports on Github and a large number of warnings during compilation (mainly incomplete switch statements which is worrying). I think these should be addressed first. I notice when clicking around the application that odd things happen (the GUI seems to get very confused for example when there are two windows open simultaneously). Other times the close button doesn't work. I think these small things should be investigated and fixed. I'm a big fan of memory and bug analysis tools so would like to run those when I get up and running with a local build. As explained to Fred, I'm currently stuck with a linker issue on MacOS (too many versions of libiconv). I hope to get past that shortly. Regards David. On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 1:36 AM Jose Da Silva <di...@jo...> wrote: > Hi David, > Start with small patches and improvements first instead of trying to > tackle > a big monster project. This comes with time as you get more familiar with > the code. I agree, C is much more interesting. > > You may want to take a top-down look (to see the forest), but probably try > fix from a bottom-up approach. Top down approach can easily fix one thing > and > break something else (and there are times where the code flipped one way > and > then another) but doing a bottom-up approach, you can fix a number of > lower- > level unstable functions that assume data is good (doesn't handle bad data > well), and also misses a bit of housecleaning along the way. > > Keep an eye for improvement, like making code thread-safe/re-entrant code, > big/little endian, runs well on modern distros and if you can, older > distros, big/little endian. > |