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= The TDS mandates the use of dpi300/cmr10.pk for font @ naming syntax as it is the only portable form across present-day> operating systems. Extensions to this recommendation, such asE cmr10.300pk or the use of font library files, may optionally B be employed on those systems that support this filename syntax, as< long as the portable form of the filename is also supported.
L The TWG struggled more with the font directory structure than anything else.. The alternative arrangement we considered was:
\ texmf/fonts/supplier/typeface/type/
I In fact, many sites already use this alternative arrangement. (It is the 8 arrangement suggested by the Web2C distribution.)
G This arrangement greatly improves the maintainability of the font tree, F but, unless all the programs that search this tree employ some form ofG caching, there are serious performance concerns. For example, in order @ to find cmr10.tfm, TeX would potentially have to search: through all the directories that contain pk filesB in all modes and at all resolutions. Clearly, this could make TeX. unusable unless it had some method for ``short circuiting'' the search.
G In the end, a straw poll of developers revealed considerable resistance H to implementing sufficient caching mechanisms, so this other arrangementA was abandoned. The arrangement settled on for the TDS allows the C search tree to be restricted to the correct type of file, at least. 7 Concerns about efficiency remain, but there seems to be no more we can do. ?
I Another discussion arose in the effort to determine where the mode should ( go. The two alternative contenders were
s texmf/fonts/pk/supplier/typeface/mode/dpi/
and
s texmf/fonts/pk/mode/dpi/supplier/typeface/
I In the former case, it isn't easy to limit subdirectory searching to only G the mode required for the particular printer you are using. And in the 9 latter case, leaving dpiNNN at the bottom E allows that level to be omitted on systems which allow long filenames (e.g., cmr10.300pk).