I've asked this question over on the OpenType and mpeg lists, but I thought some of you might have longer memories.
The current OpenType spec says, in the 'post' fmt 2.0 table, that:
Index numbers 32768 through 65535 are reserved for future use.
Does anyone have any recollection of why this limit is present -- or what possible "future use" such name ids might be put to?
And I guess more practically, can anyone suggest a reason not to eliminate this restriction?
tia,
Bob
Wouldn’t it be feasible just to use a format 3 post table, and omit the glyph names altogether?
Wouldn’t it be feasible just to use a format 3 post table, and omit the glyph names altogether?
Perhaps. But I wouldn't want to try to write OpenType and Graphite rules without human-friendly glyph identifiers, and for this the PS names are extremely helpful.
I'm generally of the opinion that the identifiers used in development tools needn't be the same as or limited by any of the requirements of the post table (or of Adobe's naming recommendations). If tools are going to offer to write development names to a post table, then they should flag any that are too long or otherwise contravene particular specifications.
That said, I don't see any reason why this restriction in the post table spec shouldn't be removed. As I understand from Apple, it was originally made because of some ancient software that is no longer relevant.
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