#685329 allow for easier switching to and from the Terminus fonts

Package:
xterm
Source:
xterm
Description:
X terminal emulator
Submitter:
Ivan Shmakov
Date:
2013-10-16 20:54:31 UTC
Severity:
wishlist
#685329#5
Date:
2012-08-19 19:38:59 UTC
From:
To:
	It may make sense to split the font definitions off
	app-defaults/UXTerm into a separate UXTerm.fonts-misc-fixed file
	there, with UXTerm amended to contain:

! Note that the fonts are now set in separate files.  The
! following file should be a symlink pointing to either of the
! files listed below.

#include "UXTerm.fonts-default"

! Possible targets for /etc/X11/app-defaults/UXTerm.fonts-default
! are (use $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xterm to choose):

! UXTerm.fonts-misc-fixed       the default -misc-fixed- fonts;
! UXTerm.fonts-efont-biwidth    fonts with better support for bold;
! UXTerm.fonts-xos4-terminus    smaller -xos4-terminus- fonts;
! UXTerm.fonts-xos4-terminus-large  ... and the larger ones.

	(The UXTerm.fonts-misc-fixed and UXTerm.fonts-efont-biwidth
	files are to contain the respective parts currently in
	app-defaults/UXTerm, while the suggested versions of *-terminus*
	are MIME'd.)

	Also, for the following reasons, there should be a way of
	controlling the UXTerm.fonts-default symlink via Debconf:

	• arguably, there're more Debian users that are familiar with
	  dpkg-reconfigure(8) than those familiar with X resources;

	• it would allow for a single Debian Live image (possibly one
	  from http://cdimage.debian.org/) to be used with different
	  Debconf preseed files for different UXTerm font defaults.

	(The xterm package will thus acquire a suitable Depends: on
	debconf, and also a Suggests: on xfonts-terminus and
	xfonts-terminus-oblique.)

	Obviously, due to better Unicode BMP coverage, -misc-fixed-
	fonts should remain the default setting.

	The drawback of the approach suggested above is that such a
	configuration is system-wide.  It's a bit unwieldy to re-use
	them for per-user configuration (though, on a second thought,
	$ ln -s -- /etc/…/UXTerm.fonts-WHATEVER ~/UXTerm.fonts-default
	may do it; or may be not.)

PS.  I hope to delve into this this week, and, with some luck, would
	probably be able to provide a patched .deb.  (At the least, it'd
	be useful for the Debian Live images we're going to use for our
	SFD celebration.)