OS: Windows

Hi.

An annoying thing about gimp is (better: was), that ist creates a fontconfig cache at startup in the windows TEMP-Folder.
The more fonts on the machine, the longer that creation needs.
And every time, I clear my TEMP-Folder, the fontconfig Cache ist recreated.
So I modified the fontconfig.dll
The modified fontconfig.dll "knows" the directory WINDOWSAPPDIR_FONTCONFIG_CACHE besides the standard
WINDOWSTEMPDIR_FONTCONFIG_CACHE
The new directory is also modified in the etc\fonts\fonts.conf, so gimp creates the fontconfig cache
in:

Windows XP: c:\documents and settings\<username>\AppData
Windows Vista/7: c:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming

Hatti

Doesn't work for me (GIMP 2.8 rc1 64-bit) Onkel; I get the following error.

Huh , don't you have the iconv.dll in your bin-directory?
I thought, many of the plugins needs it.
Strange.

try THIS :

It (iconv.dll) only exists in my 32-bit directory for GIMP 64-bit Onkel Hatti, so I'm a little relunctant now w.r.t. the cache situation since it only occurs when I delete the font cach file and only at that inititial time. If others are willing to try with their 32-bit version of 2.8 rc1, then I bet they will get benifit from your new dll, but I'm going to pass for now (call me a now relunctant sheep {but better then chicken}; lol).

Oh yeah, I see.
I don't know how to deal with it.

Hatti

Ha!

I compiled the newest fontconfig-2.9.0.
There should be no dependency on iconv.dll
Maybe one could try (lylejk?)

You could always report this as a bug, imo it seems like one. Something like that should be kept out of the temp dir and be in a dir inside gimp

Actually the windows versions should be a bit more Windows-friendly. The profile isn't at the right place, in Windows there are user directories that are actually kept on a server (this allows user to use transparently any machine) while some others (typically temp & cache) are only on the physical machine where the user logged in. It's all fairly well explained here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73760 (this document explains what changes between the XP and the Vista/Seven directory structure, so all bases are covered).

That would be cool to be able to bypass fontcache altogether and just use Windows font directory (and internal cache) with GIMP. One less thing for GIMP to worry able having to perform. Not sure how hard that would be to code though.

well modify a path should not be a difficult task.
Choosing the tmp directory to cache info needed anytime a program is used seems ...not exactly a smart idea in general, even less for Windows where the tmp directory is often erased (if not by a conscious chose, by all the very diffuse programs to clean up, the first thing they do with default setting is delete all the file there)

To be pedantic also the idea to cache the font at first run is not exactly user friendly, it cause a message about gimp not responding and many first user may well believe that gimp doesn't work to the point that doesn't even load

More user friendly will be cache the font the first time the font toll is used,popping out a message about the possibility that the operation may require a long time..till no font is used there is not a need for a font cache

I agree lyle. PC is it possible to have font-cache run in the background, so that when gimp loads it already had this file generated?

honestly i don't know, but generate it the very first time is needed,( when the text tool is called the first time ), accompanied by a message as "please wait gimp has to cache your fonts. This is needed only once but could take a long time" should be possible

I think that would be a pain as well. If there was a way to auto update the font cache through windows, like whenever a font is installed, that would solve both the annoying wait at load up, and having to wait while gimp loads your fonts.

I have added iconv.dll to Gimp-2.7 in the bin folder without any problems. I have not tried this with RC1 however.

I did and works well
More exactly now i have 2 iconv.dll and they don't conflict:

1 it is compiled for 32 bit and is in the 32bit folder because needed by Mathmap
2 the other is compiled for 64bit and installed globally because needed but many (64bit) plugin

no problem so far (that means in the last 2 weeks)

Good to know PC.

Thanks!