Investigate FontForge Python API

[ctrlcctrlv]

Currently I'm using the Menus to generate the alternate SFDs and the OTFs, but that takes up considerable time (as fun as it is to watch the glyphs change it's becoming not worth it :P)

I should just write a build.py script.

[ctrlcctrlv]

There's a huge documentation page here: http://pfaedit.org/python.html

Shouldn't be too hard

[ctrlcctrlv]

[fredrick@localhost ~]$ python
Python 3.4.3 (default, Mar 25 2015, 17:13:50) 
[GCC 4.9.2 20150304 (prerelease)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import fontforge
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named 'fontforge'
>>> 
[fredrick@localhost ~]$ python2
Python 2.7.10 (default, May 26 2015, 04:16:29) 
[GCC 5.1.0] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import fontforge
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named fontforge

hmmm

[ctrlcctrlv]

I thought it may be because I build FontForge from source to avail of the latest changes, but Python is opt-out, not opt-in.

  --disable-native-scripting
                          disable the legacy fontforge scripting language
  --disable-python-scripting
                          disable Python scripting
  --disable-python-extension
                          do not build the Python extension modules "psMat"
                          and "fontforge", even if they were included in this
                          source distribution

[ctrlcctrlv]

I did ./configure again just to be sure.

Configuration:

  Source code location  .
  Build code location
  Destination prefix    /usr/local
  Compiler              gcc

Summary of optional features:

  real (floating pt)    double
  programs              yes
  native scripting      yes
  python scripting      yes
  python extension      yes
  freetype debugger     no
  raw points mode       no
  tile path             no
  gb12345 encoding      no

It could be because I have both sortsmill-editor and fontforge one is overwriting the extension of the other. Ech

[ctrlcctrlv]

The plot thickens :)

[fredrick@localhost fontforge]$ locate fontforge.py
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontforge.py
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontforge.pyc
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fontforge.pyo

[ctrlcctrlv]

[fredrick@localhost fontforge]$ PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ python2
Python 2.7.10 (default, May 26 2015, 04:16:29) 
[GCC 5.1.0] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import fontforge
guile: uncaught throw to misc-error: (public-lookup Module named ~s does not exist ((sortsmill ffcompat)) #f)

Yes sortsmill-editor overwrote my Python extension. d'oh!

[ctrlcctrlv]

Guess another sudo make install can't hurt

[ctrlcctrlv]

Actually this is a perfect time to try https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/pull/2416

If this fixes https://github.com/fontforge/fontforge/issues/2406 I can just place my bounty on something else

[ctrlcctrlv]

Applied https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/fontforge/fontforge/pull/2416.patch and rebuilding :sunglasses:

[ctrlcctrlv]

Got it, I figured it out.

[fredrick@localhost fontforge]$ PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python3.4/site-packages/ python3
Python 3.4.3 (default, Mar 25 2015, 17:13:50) 
[GCC 4.9.2 20150304 (prerelease)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import fontforge
>>> 

fontforge uses py3k, sortsmill-editor only supports py2k. Weird.