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I just upgraded to XFree86-tools-4.2.99.2-0.20021105.2 and associated packages with the same version number. Now xclock appears to be ignoring all attempts to set its font. Mind you, editres shows that the font resource on the clock widget has been set, but no matter what I set it to xclock comes up in the same font when run with -digital. I don't know whether this problem is specific to xclock or indicative of a larger problem (although I haven't yet noticed font problems in any other X applications).
I wasn't sure about wether or not this is a bug so I asked Keith... <keithp> xclock now uses render by default. Set the font with '-fa'. <keithp> Or use -norender <mharris> So that one isn't a bug then, just a change in behaviour? <keithp> Yup. Gotta move forward and stop using '-fn' :-) <mharris> Ok, sounds good to me. Thanks. <keithp> NOTABUG So this is a feature, and not a bug. Closing NOTABUG.
There is still a bug here, although I admit that it's not clear exactly what the bug is. Some remaining issues: * The xclock man page doesn't mention -face or the "face" X resource. * Xterm defaults to old-style fonts and only does rendering if a face is specified. Why doesn't xclock behave the same way? * Xterm provides the -fs command-line option and the faceSize X resource for setting the freetype face size. Xclock, on the other hand, appears to provide no way whatsoever to set the face size. * Is freetype rendering and faces in X applications documented anywhere? I certainly couldn't find it. Note, for example, the documentation of common options in X(7x). If -face is going to be standard in the future, it needs to be documented there.
Oh, and the usage message that you get when you do "xclock -help" doesn't mention "-norender".
All of the questions you have asked are quite interesting, however I do not know the answers. I am not going to simply be a middleman in between yourself and XFree86.org for answering them. Please ask these questions on xpert@xfree86.org or fonts@xfree86.org user mailing lists. Bugzilla is not a question forum or tech support forum. Also, don't reopen a closed bug report and add new data to it as a new report. If you've got a new bug to report, open a new bug report. For each of the bulleted items in your last comment, either it is a question for XFree86.org, or it is a issue that it is up to them to determine if it is a bug or not, and if so, it is up to them to fix it. xclock is a trivial application, not worth wasting my time. If it is that problematic, it is _gone_.
Also, missing things in manpages and stuff like that should be reported to XFree86.org. I've stated numerous times that extreme trivia should be reported upstream. As for freetype, I don't even care if freetype itself has any documentation at all. I am not a freetype developer, documentor, packager, I don't maintain freetype, I don't use freetype in my own code, and I don't even look at freetype's source code, or documentation. The place to ask freetype questions is some mailing list dangling off of www.freetype.org