RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Rescanning available fonts

[Martin Wuerthner <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In message <5056CBC646CB4047BB26120F4377DB71D17AEA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>
          "Neil Howe" <NeilH@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> > I am about to change the font system to no longer report "FreeType"
>> > fonts but rather report TrueType and Type1 fonts instead. [...]
>> 
>> I have implemented the above and it fixes bugs 1066 and 1076 and also
>> file saving. It does take a long time to enumerate fonts though
>> because opening each font using Pango/FreeType is rather expensive. On
>> my system (3.2GHz Pentium 4) with about 300 fonts installed, it takes
>> 6 seconds.
>> 
>> So, as I gathered, it is not practicable without a cache - the text
>> tool calls the font enumerator each time it is selected and we cannot
>> have such a long delay in that situation.
> 
> Ok, so are you looking at implementing a cache Martin? Is this a big
> job?

Yes, I will do it and it is hopefully not a big job. I do not think 
checking in my current changes makes any sense until I got the cache 
working - otherwise everyone will have a confusing wait of several 
seconds each time the text tool is selected.

I was wrong earlier in claiming that the wait also occurs during 
start-up - this only happened because TextTool was my default tool. I 
guess it will happen though when the font gallery is enabled and open.

It is irritating to see the wait when the text tool is first selected. 
Maybe we should have a pop-up window saying "Scanning fonts..." while 
it is done? Actually, coming to think of it - just enumerating the 
fonts is quick, so I could first enumerate them and then open each 
individual one to enquire about its type, then we could even have a 
window with a progress bar.

Martin