7 ms·

What on earth possessed me... (2008)

105 points by evolve2k 9y ago

VHRanger 9y ago
Title gore
- kurthr 9y ago
  Yes, and don't get George srarted about Chain Ringing! It may be the only thing he loves more than fonts... or lemurs. In all seriousness, he's done great work on open source projects he loves... as a truly great software engineer. All paid for by a the risk he took working for a Start-up that was acquired by AOL before the big boom.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - pja 9y ago
    Do you mean Change Ringing ?
    - kurthr 9y ago
      Yes, with bells! Didn't catch the mobile autocorrect :( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing
molecule 9y ago
I briefly hoped that this would be a link to https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22what+on+earth+possessed+me%22&type=Commits https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22what+on+earth+...
0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
> Within a month I had received my first bug report, and presumably had my first user. This isn't really discovering Agile before it's time, but maybe some people think it is.
donw 9y ago
> In July a friend of mine, who is a mac user, said she wouldn't even consider looking at fontforge on her mac unless it behaved more like a mac application. So I figured out how to build a mac Application... > > My friend still (November) has not looked at fontforge. Ah well. This is a great example why user feedback needs to be taken in close proximity to a salt mine. We, or at least most of us, being human, have a horrible job anticipating our future emotional state. So when his friend said that she'd be interested if FontForge was available on her Mac, she probably meant it, but her request didn't reflect the underlying reasons she held for not using the software. Not out of dishonesty or malice, but because she probably didn't know herself. It's like all those times somebody swore they would love to have an app that frobnitzed the foobars, but when said app became available, it was met with a chorus of shrugs and mehs. There's an excellent book on this topic -- The Mom Test -- that anybody building products should read.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  Reminds me of one day in the 90s I was out jogging with a colleague. He said that what the world needed was a Java compiler that compiled to native code. He needed one right now, and I should work on it. I said it was a great idea, and I had already implemented one. He could start using it today. He promptly lost all interest in it. (It turns out, on the complex plane the demand for native Java compilers is on the imaginary axis.)
  - thesmallestcat 9y ago
    Did he say what he needed it for, or was it a vague aspiration?
  - gumby 9y ago
    Indeed, gcc recently nuked its support for this due to lack of interest (by users or maintainers).
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      That only happened, because the majority of GCJ developers left when OpenJDK was announced back in 2009, and almost no one cared about it since then. Companies selling commercial native compilers for Java are still in business since the early days.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I tried fontforge once. Frankly, I couldn't figure it out how to get it to work after playing with it for a few hours. My dreams of building custom programming-oriented ligatures for a proportional font are still unrealized.
- bfu 9y ago
  Some time ago in gamedev subredit someone asked for font with ligatures, I made minimal working sfd file (internal format of fontforge) from which you can generate ttf font: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6nrpvf/how_would_i_go_about_making_a_custom_font_for_my/dkbws65/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6nrpvf/how_would_i... the sfd is at the bottom of the thread (in the middle of thread is how to make custom ligatures). But I agree that FontForge is horrendous (and that comes from someone who made moderately sucessfull (50k downloads) font with it)
- Brendinooo 9y ago
  You get what you pay for. I haven't worked with it for a few years now but I found it to be quirky and unstable. But it was free, which was better than the $650 or so that you needed for FontLab, which was the main piece of software for font creation out tehre at the time, and it seemed to have a more features than I needed for what I was working on. Cross-platform was a nice feature as well.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    No one has really documented the OSS process for modifying and deploying a font yet, though supposedly it exists.
dhotson 9y ago
Semi-related, I recently got into type design as a hobby. I've primarily been using an app called Glyphs https://glyphsapp.com/ https://glyphsapp.com/ as well as FontLab VI https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-vi/ https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-vi/ Both are excellent. FontForge is pretty good but I found it slightly overwhelming. I found it's great if you need to fix parts of existing fonts though. There are some excellent guides out there on how to use FontForge. I really liked this guide about adjusting for optical illusions: http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Trusting_Your_Eyes.html http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Trusting_Your_Eyes.html .. I found it kind of mind blowing. For those interested, I'm currently working on a 19th century French Didot style font, here's my progress: http://dn.ht/didhot/test.html http://dn.ht/didhot/test.html .. feedback welcome. :)
- akx 9y ago
  AN and BW kern a little loosely, it looks like? :) Good work!
  - dhotson 9y ago
    Thanks! Yeah heh.. it turns out the spacing and kerning is probably more work than the lettering. I've also been looking at this long enough now that I often can't tell what looks "normal" anymore.
- evolve2k 9y ago
  I'm wanting to get into type design also. Any recommendations for good beginner resources/ philosophies / courses to get started on the right track?
  - dhotson 9y ago
    The fontforge guide is a really good start: http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html Also, there are some great tutorials on the Glyphs website: https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/drawing-good-paths https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/drawing-good-paths Sometimes I've asked for advice on type design forums such as http://typedrawers.com/ http://typedrawers.com/ .. be prepared for possibly blunt but honest and useful feedback. ;-)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
gjm11 9y ago
As an aside, the fragment of Shakespeare quoted at the start is a famously dirty joke. (The fact that the two characters quoted both seem blithely unaware of what they are saying is a further joke; both are being laughed at.)

105 points by evolve2k 9y ago

VHRanger 9y ago

Title gore

kurthr 9y ago
Yes, and don't get George srarted about Chain Ringing! It may be the only thing he loves more than fonts... or lemurs. In all seriousness, he's done great work on open source projects he loves... as a truly great software engineer. All paid for by a the risk he took working for a Start-up that was acquired by AOL before the big boom.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- pja 9y ago
  Do you mean Change Ringing ?
  - kurthr 9y ago
    Yes, with bells! Didn't catch the mobile autocorrect :( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing

molecule 9y ago

I briefly hoped that this would be a link to https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22what+on+earth+possessed+me%22&type=Commits https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22what+on+earth+...

0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago

> Within a month I had received my first bug report, and presumably had my first user. This isn't really discovering Agile before it's time, but maybe some people think it is.

donw 9y ago

> In July a friend of mine, who is a mac user, said she wouldn't even consider looking at fontforge on her mac unless it behaved more like a mac application. So I figured out how to build a mac Application... > > My friend still (November) has not looked at fontforge. Ah well. This is a great example why user feedback needs to be taken in close proximity to a salt mine. We, or at least most of us, being human, have a horrible job anticipating our future emotional state. So when his friend said that she'd be interested if FontForge was available on her Mac, she probably meant it, but her request didn't reflect the underlying reasons she held for not using the software. Not out of dishonesty or malice, but because she probably didn't know herself. It's like all those times somebody swore they would love to have an app that frobnitzed the foobars, but when said app became available, it was met with a chorus of shrugs and mehs. There's an excellent book on this topic -- The Mom Test -- that anybody building products should read.

WalterBright 9y ago
Reminds me of one day in the 90s I was out jogging with a colleague. He said that what the world needed was a Java compiler that compiled to native code. He needed one right now, and I should work on it. I said it was a great idea, and I had already implemented one. He could start using it today. He promptly lost all interest in it. (It turns out, on the complex plane the demand for native Java compilers is on the imaginary axis.)
- thesmallestcat 9y ago
  Did he say what he needed it for, or was it a vague aspiration?
- gumby 9y ago
  Indeed, gcc recently nuked its support for this due to lack of interest (by users or maintainers).
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    That only happened, because the majority of GCJ developers left when OpenJDK was announced back in 2009, and almost no one cared about it since then. Companies selling commercial native compilers for Java are still in business since the early days.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

I tried fontforge once. Frankly, I couldn't figure it out how to get it to work after playing with it for a few hours. My dreams of building custom programming-oriented ligatures for a proportional font are still unrealized.

bfu 9y ago
Some time ago in gamedev subredit someone asked for font with ligatures, I made minimal working sfd file (internal format of fontforge) from which you can generate ttf font: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6nrpvf/how_would_i_go_about_making_a_custom_font_for_my/dkbws65/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6nrpvf/how_would_i... the sfd is at the bottom of the thread (in the middle of thread is how to make custom ligatures). But I agree that FontForge is horrendous (and that comes from someone who made moderately sucessfull (50k downloads) font with it)
Brendinooo 9y ago
You get what you pay for. I haven't worked with it for a few years now but I found it to be quirky and unstable. But it was free, which was better than the $650 or so that you needed for FontLab, which was the main piece of software for font creation out tehre at the time, and it seemed to have a more features than I needed for what I was working on. Cross-platform was a nice feature as well.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  No one has really documented the OSS process for modifying and deploying a font yet, though supposedly it exists.

dhotson 9y ago

Semi-related, I recently got into type design as a hobby. I've primarily been using an app called Glyphs https://glyphsapp.com/ https://glyphsapp.com/ as well as FontLab VI https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-vi/ https://www.fontlab.com/font-editor/fontlab-vi/ Both are excellent. FontForge is pretty good but I found it slightly overwhelming. I found it's great if you need to fix parts of existing fonts though. There are some excellent guides out there on how to use FontForge. I really liked this guide about adjusting for optical illusions: http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Trusting_Your_Eyes.html http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Trusting_Your_Eyes.html .. I found it kind of mind blowing. For those interested, I'm currently working on a 19th century French Didot style font, here's my progress: http://dn.ht/didhot/test.html http://dn.ht/didhot/test.html .. feedback welcome. :)

akx 9y ago
AN and BW kern a little loosely, it looks like? :) Good work!
- dhotson 9y ago
  Thanks! Yeah heh.. it turns out the spacing and kerning is probably more work than the lettering. I've also been looking at this long enough now that I often can't tell what looks "normal" anymore.
evolve2k 9y ago
I'm wanting to get into type design also. Any recommendations for good beginner resources/ philosophies / courses to get started on the right track?
- dhotson 9y ago
  The fontforge guide is a really good start: http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html Also, there are some great tutorials on the Glyphs website: https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/drawing-good-paths https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/drawing-good-paths Sometimes I've asked for advice on type design forums such as http://typedrawers.com/ http://typedrawers.com/ .. be prepared for possibly blunt but honest and useful feedback. ;-)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

gjm11 9y ago

As an aside, the fragment of Shakespeare quoted at the start is a famously dirty joke. (The fact that the two characters quoted both seem blithely unaware of what they are saying is a further joke; both are being laughed at.)