A few people had said that I should give it numbered versions over the course of last year. I have always thought that when I have finished filling in all the parts that Microsoft did not release, and all the non-portable parts that do not run on non-windows, I will bump the version up (from 1.0.x, the last public binary from Microsoft dated back in 2003, and the incomplete "1.1.x" code base last updated around 2009 on which the open-source release is based on). Some months ago my idea was to call it v1.2 - now I think the enhancement is large enough to call it 2.0. At least one person had said I should gpg-signed things. So I have signed, tagged 2.0 [3] and uploaded 2.0 binaries, both dotnet/mono binary (-bin.zip) and mac os binary (dmg) up at [1].
A couple of weeks ago, the beginning of the rasterisation test landed; it went on a lot further, quite quickly because of comparing the test results from ~5000 fonts with 1.0. At this point, I can honestly tell people "this is the version most should use, instead of the old one", so it is called "2.0".
Almost a year on, the enhancement is certainly large enough to give it a major new version:
- 1.x runs only on windows. There were quite a few non-portable parts, and two major components which Microsoft kept proprietary and did not release - the digital signature verification and rasterization. 2.0 now runs fully functional on Linux, even GUI-wise, compared to windows. GUI on Mac OS X is still missing a webkit framework bridge for the built-in XML report viewer, and offers the same core font testing functionality, just requiring opening the reports separately after font testing. Georg Seifert had made a nice native Mac X GUI wrapper around the command line tool.
- the command line tool, together with the embedded python interpreter, allows one to do serious bulk batch testing - considering that I used it to run against 5000 fonts. (in the other thread I posted). It was also because I had that bulk testing and comparison in mind that I added the python interpreter. The scripting engine is also used for running a few demo scripts, the most useful being the ttc splitter/joiner pair.
- there have been many bug fixes, the long overdue support for CFF table validation, misc updates to current specs, support for new tables esp. SVG; some of it still on-going.
There are still plenty to do - there are 23 issues upstream now [4] and 7 filed in mine [5] . While participation from Microsoft folks had been non-existent, I am eternally hopeful. People should continue to file issues "upstream" at [4], unless it is specifically regarding codes I wrote.
The sourceforge download meter consistently shows downloads from Mac users much higher than windows users, so improving functionality on Mac (or making a port!) is a task that Microsoft probably should have done a long time ago, and will continue to be a priority; not-upstreaming (and not risking breaking the display on Linux!) enhancement to FreeType allows one to concentrate to give it extra diagnostic ability, and could do with some love to push the enhancement upstream.
dotnet/mono binary (-bin.zip) and mac os binary (dmg) up at [1], and please do make a donation [2] if you find this useful; and if you use it for work, please consider asking your employers to do one. Code up at [3].
[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/hp-pxl-jetready/files/Microsoft%20Font%20Validator/
[2] https://sourceforge.net/p/hp-pxl-jetready/donate/
[3] https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator
[4] https://github.com/Microsoft/Font-Validator/issues
[5] https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator/issues
A couple of weeks ago, the beginning of the rasterisation test landed; it went on a lot further, quite quickly because of comparing the test results from ~5000 fonts with 1.0. At this point, I can honestly tell people "this is the version most should use, instead of the old one", so it is called "2.0".
Almost a year on, the enhancement is certainly large enough to give it a major new version:
- 1.x runs only on windows. There were quite a few non-portable parts, and two major components which Microsoft kept proprietary and did not release - the digital signature verification and rasterization. 2.0 now runs fully functional on Linux, even GUI-wise, compared to windows. GUI on Mac OS X is still missing a webkit framework bridge for the built-in XML report viewer, and offers the same core font testing functionality, just requiring opening the reports separately after font testing. Georg Seifert had made a nice native Mac X GUI wrapper around the command line tool.
- the command line tool, together with the embedded python interpreter, allows one to do serious bulk batch testing - considering that I used it to run against 5000 fonts. (in the other thread I posted). It was also because I had that bulk testing and comparison in mind that I added the python interpreter. The scripting engine is also used for running a few demo scripts, the most useful being the ttc splitter/joiner pair.
- there have been many bug fixes, the long overdue support for CFF table validation, misc updates to current specs, support for new tables esp. SVG; some of it still on-going.
There are still plenty to do - there are 23 issues upstream now [4] and 7 filed in mine [5] . While participation from Microsoft folks had been non-existent, I am eternally hopeful. People should continue to file issues "upstream" at [4], unless it is specifically regarding codes I wrote.
The sourceforge download meter consistently shows downloads from Mac users much higher than windows users, so improving functionality on Mac (or making a port!) is a task that Microsoft probably should have done a long time ago, and will continue to be a priority; not-upstreaming (and not risking breaking the display on Linux!) enhancement to FreeType allows one to concentrate to give it extra diagnostic ability, and could do with some love to push the enhancement upstream.
dotnet/mono binary (-bin.zip) and mac os binary (dmg) up at [1], and please do make a donation [2] if you find this useful; and if you use it for work, please consider asking your employers to do one. Code up at [3].
[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/hp-pxl-jetready/files/Microsoft%20Font%20Validator/
[2] https://sourceforge.net/p/hp-pxl-jetready/donate/
[3] https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator
[4] https://github.com/Microsoft/Font-Validator/issues
[5] https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator/issues