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19 February 2003
moving NEXTSTEP fonts to OS X
So why all the sudden interest in X11? Well, while scrolling through the software in FinkCommander I came across Fondu. Fondu and its counterpart ufond convert back and forth between Mac and UNIX font formats.
For the last 2+ years I've been looking to move a bunch of fonts from NEXTSTEP to Mac OS X. It's all PostScript of one flavor or another, so it ought to just work. It doesn't. You need to convert them. But until this weekend, I couldn't find any free tools that would do the job. t1utils really wasn't doing it. Some would convert, most wouldn't. Would Fondu solve my problems? The short answer, after much experimentation, is No.
But, in researching Fondu I stumbled across PfaEdit by the same author. PfaEdit reads in .pfa files (PostScript font definitions) and writes them out as .dfonts! (.dfonts are flattened Mac font files, with no resource fork. OS X understands them natively, with no need to put them in the Classic system folder. I don't have Classic (or even OS 9) installed, so that's a big help.) To my surprise and delight, PfaEdit even comes with an OS X specific installer, though it requires X11 for display. Would this finally do the job? Yes, it worked the first time!
Surprisingly, there's not a lot of information out there on how to move fonts from NEXTSTEP to OS X. The Omni Lists have had a couple of threads over the years, but the question, as far as I can tell, had never been resolved. Here's my answer:
On NEXTSTEP, fonts are stored in .font directories (file wrappers) that contain a number of files that make up the font. The only one, that I can tell, of interest is the file inside the wrapper (named the same as the name of the font) without any extension. This is the PostScript outline definition of the font in ASCII form, also known as a PFA file. Copy this file over to the Mac and add the .pfa extension. Fire up X11 and PfaEdit. Open the .pfa file in PfaEdit and hit File > Generate Fonts.... Save it as type .dfont and put that in ~/Library/Fonts. OS X apps should recognize the new font immediately. (No more buildafmdir!)
OS X does the right thing by reading each .dfont file (or other files of known type in the various Library/Font directories) and orders them by family and weight in the Font panel. Using a single .dfont file for every corresponding .font under NeXTstep keeps it simple. No need to create multifont/family suitcases. No need to mess with resource forks. It just works. OS X and PfaEdit win the day!
A couple of tips:
To keep the font panel sane, I needed to make three familes, Adobe Garamond, Abode Garamond Alt, and Adobe Garamond Expert. PfaEdit made this easy. Element > Font Info... and away you go.
The thing is, after finally getting all these fonts transferred and converted, I've come to the realization that the fonts you get with OS X are much more versatile, with a much cleaner look than anything in the Adobe Font Collection for NeXTstep. Digital typography has certainly improved in 10 years. I use Lucida and Cochin (included with Mac OS X) on a daily basis and like them better than anything from NEXTSTEP.
Still, I'm glad to see Tekton again...
18 February 2003
Apple X11 + Fink + FinkCommander? It just works...
Over the weekend it became clear that I really didn't have enough space in the root partition of my OS X machine to upgrade to 10.2.4. I had been warned to set aside a full 10 GB the last time I rebuilt. I didn't. I paid the price. Had to rebuild.
The good news, beyond the numerous improvements in 10.2.4, is that I was finally able to straighten out my X11 installation. Over the course of many months, I had installed XDarwin, Fink, Apple's X11 beta, and finally DarwinPorts over and on top of each other enough times that nothing really worked too well anymore.
I had switched from Fink to DarwinPorts thinking that it would, in the long run, be a better solution as it came from Apple (more or less) and mirrored the way FreeBSD Ports works. FreeBSD Ports had always seemed a much more elegant system than any of the various "package managers" developed for Linux. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough packages ported to DarwinPorts yet. Fink definitely has it all for you, ready to go.
After I installed Apple's X11 and Fink, which went flawlessly, I decided to take another look at FinkCommander. I had tried this in the past, but it had a fairly confusing interface and didn't work particularly well. All that has now
What's the point of all this? Simple. Most all of the interesting software available on Linux really is now available with just a point-and-click install on OS X. Yes, I could spend the hours needed to download, configure, and install it all by hand. But who has the time? Congrats and thanks to all those that made this happen. I couldn't be happier!
photo info
As you can see from the postings below I've been given a lesson in uploading photos to the blog. Some of the photos (like the Belleruche label) are just illustrative tidbits; others, like Wallace enjoying the last few licks of Straus yogurt, can be viewed in a larger format by clicking on them (which should launch a larger photo window).
17 February 2003
straus family creamery: god's yogurt
A few weeks ago Terrence posted an entry quoting an article which referred to TiVo as "god's machine." Now we've found "god's yogurt."
Straus Family Creamery, an organic farm based in Marin County, produces some of the best dairy products around, and their yogurt has found die-hard fans in both Terrence and Wallace. (Wallace starts licking his chops the minute the container comes out of the refrigerator.) Straus also produces marvelous non-homogenzed whole milk and decadently delicious whipping cream, packaged in glass bottles which can be returned for a refund (usually $1.00). It's yogurt that's worth seeking out.
wine rec: Chapoutier, Belleruche
We're quite pleased with this syrah/grenache blend from Chapoutier. We found ours at Cost Plus, but it's imported by Paterno and should be available nationally. We've tried it with tuna, we've tried it with pork, we've slurped it on its own, and the verdict is the same: very, very nice (and reasonably priced).
11 February 2003
class action re shrinkwrap
LawMeme features a post dated 10 February 2003 entitled "Suing Over Shrinkwrap." James Grimmelmann summarizes the dilemma and the complaint:
Shrinkwrap licenses typically tell you that if you don't accept their terms, you can't use the software. Equally typically, you can't actually read the license until you've opened the box. But most software retailers won't accept returns on opened software. Catch-22.
Well, one California woman has filed a class action suit over the practice. She names as defendants both software makers -- like Microsoft and Symantec -- and software retailers -- like Best Buy and CompUSA. She claims their actions, taken together, constitute unlawful business practices and have "unfair chilling effects" on consumers. The complaint also includes a request that whichever unspecified clauses in the licenses that violate California consumer law be removed.
Now, it's not the case that everything that's wrong with software licensing could be fixed just by letting consumers see the licenses before they buy. There are substantive problems here, not just procedural ones. But some of the suit's proposed remedies -- copies of licenses posted in stores and on the web for easy inspection -- make a great deal of sense, even if relatively few people actually do read them while on line at the cash register.
The LawMeme story includes a link to a .pdf of the complaint. Very interesting, not only because we're discussing shrinkwrap in my Contracts class, but also because of the ubiquity of this type of contract.
some things one can't understand
It's 3:34 in the afternoon and I'm still thinking about a sight from this morning's drive to campus. Picture this:
A grey, rainy morning. On a residential street in Beverly Hills, an elderly man dressed in snow boots, hat, and coat squeegees water off the hood of his large, late-model Cadillac Seville.
Squeegeeing in the rain. Is this just atypical behavior for an atypical morning? Did we inadvertently wander onto a David Lynch film set? Or is this some sort of myth of eternal punishment come to life before our eyes? Hmm...
08 February 2003
an early valentine's day story
Lately it seems that television shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have reduced romance to a series of clichéd steps and embarassing revelations. Mind you, I haven't watched these shows, but their content is inescapable if you watch any television. Even the news broadcasts (well, those in L.A....) carry updates, which says something else about the state of news reporting. But this story is a goodie, the kind that might actually renew someone's faith in love at any age. Cheers to Mildred and Hubert!
01 February 2003
what we're listening to
It's a busy weekend here at talbotlucas.org: lots of legal reading and writing (lisa) and lots of reading and coding (terrence). What's keeping us humming along?
Norah Jones, Come Away With Me
Stephen Miller, Man of Leisure
Beethoven Radio, www.beethoven.com It's commercial-free, and it's not limited to Beethoven; Ravel's Bolero is on the air right now. Is it odd that Bolero brings Bo Derek to Terrence's mind, and Allan Bloom to mine...? (n.b.: to those of you with iTunes, Beethoven Radio is available in the radio category under "classical")
Soundtracks to High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank
Diana Krall, Live in Paris