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From: Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Font support for utf8
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2025 08:45:32 +0100
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On 2025-07-10, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:40:58 +0100, Nuno Silva wrote:
>
>> In this case, wouldn't a more appropriate route be introducing a
>> terminal escape sequence for this ...
>
> Not sure why that’s relevant to issues of font query APIs.

Because the font rendering is a property of the terminal or terminal
emulator. I don't see a reason why a program running inside a terminal
device ought to access directly the rendering library, at least not
without some prior interaction with the terminal device confirming it's
ok to do so. (It could go via termcap/terminfo, but even then, what if a
terminal emulator can use different ways to render fonts? Some dynamic
check might be necessary for that.)

If what you want is just a font query, go ahead. But if what you want is
a font query regarding what the terminal device is currently using, then
I'd say that ought to go via the terminal, and it seems to me that
escape sequences would be a much more fitting way to do that?

-- 
Nuno Silva