Overview of supported glyphs

[kaj-se]

Problem

Missing list that shows an overview of all supported glyphs of the font.

Context

This gives a quick overview of all supported glyphs that are covered by the font.

• Python script to generate a list based on SFD-file
• Integration of the list in README.md as link
• Repo should be able to rerun the python script if SFD-file was edited

[kaj-se]

[seanmakesgames]

Can you clarify the problem here? What is this list helping you with? What problem is 'not having the list' (a solution) causing?

[kaj-se]

The problem is that there is currently no quick way to see which glyphs are supported. This list is a simple approach to filling this information gap, and is also well suited as a reference file for the wiki (https://wiki.hackmud.com/scripting/syntax/unicode/), for example. The pull request also includes a Python script that generates this list from the SFD-file, ensuring that the list is safe to use and always up to date.

[kaj-se]

Added a better problem explanation and solution section to the main issue text.

[seanmakesgames]

Why do you need this list? <- this is the question I'm looking for the answer to.
What problems happen when you don't have a quick way to see what glyphs are supported by the font?

There are slow ways to get this information: opening the file, searching the sfd.
Creating a new place to have this information creates information duplication which is another 'source of truth' and something that can go out of date and provide incorrect information. Automation helps this, but also introduces more code, which is more code to maintain.

If we create an 'overview list' it needs to be solving a problem that outweighs the problems that it introduces.

[hmdunce]

I think it would be useful to have a script to generate the list.

The script could be useful for:

• comprehensive glyph test generation
• generating the "sample" which is needed for the client SDF atlas generation
• hackmud players who want to get an up-to-date list (like dtr.man{page:"$.unicode"} or whatever it was)
• hackmud wiki editors who want to update the list on the wiki (!)

I suggest that the script should be a fontforge script so we don't reimplement .sfd parsing, though... (Example: if we move to .sfdir someday, we won't need to change anything.)

The output should be suitable for further processing, not formatted for humans. (JSON? Or simple text, one glyph per line?)

[kaj-se]

I mean the points that @hmdunce has said are all valuable. The main reason why I want a list like that, is that they have a complete list that holds all information about the supported glyphs. That alone is enough to add it to the repo in my opinion. Lookup lists are a single point of truth that can also be used for much more than ez lookup for the wiki or player in-game scripts.

@hmdunce you're right YAML or JSON are much better as output format.

The script for generating the list is very simple, the most code is error detection, so why should it add more problems than it solves?

[hmdunce]

I would make a PR for this 28f5785 but not sure whether to make a new issue, hijack this one, or do a PR with no issue 😂