Re: groff 1.23.0.rc2 readiness

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi, Kurt!

At 2022-05-26T10:29:04-0400, T. Kurt Bond wrote:
> I really need to get the install-font script POSIXfied then, don't I?
> Is there a specific timeframe?

I don't have one to impose.  I can't do an RC myself because (1) I don't
know how to do the part that interacts with alpha.gnu.org infrastructure
and (2) there's something involving signing keys (a wise safeguard).

I will say that I had basically resigned myself to not having this
feature in groff 1.23.0.  Having dug more into font issues over the past
several months, I am starting to think it might be cleaner to get
PostScript and PDF device font description management improved _within_
the groff source tree, then leverage that improvement in shipping tools.

I got as far as fixing up the X11 font description stuff, now mentioned
in the "FOR-RELEASE" file, and I started working on Adobe Type 1 fonts,
but had to put that on the shelf (read: in my Git stash) because
something more urgent came up.

I'm attaching the last thing on this topic that I put in my stash so
people have an idea what I'm talking about.  It is absolutely not done.

Even with the install-font script made POSIX-shell-happy, there will
still be work to do, like giving it a less name-space-stomperific
name[1], writing a man page for it, and giving distribution packaging
folks enough guidance that they will understand how to correctly call
our tool from their package triggers or "postinst"s or similar.

In summary, I think a significant chunk of work remains to be bitten off
for this task.

Regards,
Branden

[1] I guess "groff-font-install" or "groff-install-font" would be clear
    enough, but I think either would annoy me when tab-completing
    "groff".  Maybe we can do better.

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