Bug#998280: Please switch the dependency from ttf-bitstream-vera to fonts-dejavu-core

[Ross Vandegrift]

On Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 12:01:51AM +0000, Amr Ibrahim wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, dem 27.01.2022 um 21:05 -0800 schrieb Ross Vandegrift:
> > Is ttf-bitstream-vera going away?
> 
> No, ttf-bitstream-vera is not going away because there are still many
> packages that depend on it.
> 
> The real issue of the Bitstream Vera font is that when it's installed,
> it takes precedence over the DejaVu font and becomes the default serif,
> sans-serif and monospace font on the system, and that's fontconfig's
> responsibility. That causes some issues displaying some characters,
> which are not supported by Bitstream Vera, in addition to being uglier
> than DejaVu.
> 
> Upstream fontconfig fixed that by completely removing Bitstream Vera
> from 60-latin.conf:
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/merge_requests/99
> 
> But that fix has not reached Debian yet because fontconfig has not seen
> real maintainer-ship for over a year now:
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=961386
> 
> So the alternative solution is, if feasible, to drop the dependency on
> ttf-bitstream-vera. If not feasible, then we'll just have to wait until
> fontconfig is fixed in Debian.

Thanks for the additional info.  The pain will be for users who end up having a
worse experience due to Bitstream Vera being installed.

Since it's just used in EFL examples (and so isn't installed in any search
paths for fonts), I will:
1) drop the dependency on ttf-bitstream-vera
2) go back to distributing upstream's copy for the examples
This ensures that efl-doc's examples are unchanged, and that users aren't
forced to fallback to a worse font option.

Thanks,
Ross