Let me just say that AbiWord is progressing really nicely, 0.5.4 is stable enough for me to have already edited, and updated my resume with. :)
Anyway, I'm one of the package developers for Stampede Linux, and we're developing binary packages for AbiWord (we like to stay on the cutting edge) Anyway, one of the problems is the new font system. Ideally, there would be a way to set the default font paths... AND it wouldn't involve files in /usr/AbiSuite. AFAIK, this is contrary to the FHS we (and many others) are striving for. For our system, until 0.5.3, all fonts were in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/AbiWord, which is convenient for multi-user systems, and for maintenance... however recent versions ignore the ABIWORD_FONTPATH environment variable, and require that EACH user have an .AbiSuite/Abi*.Profile file in their home directory. I have one suggestion. Perhaps a global configuration file in /usr/<somedir>/share/AbiSuite contains a default AbiWord.Profile file that would be installed with any user running AbiWord for the first time.
Ideally, the default font path would be in the X fonts directory, as it simply makes sense to have fonts there, that's what the directory is for. I guess it is a little anal, but a well organized and maintained system is a goal for any UNIX sysadmin (IMHO) and using a standard font path is definitely good for maintenance and reducing clutter.
Thanks for all your hard work, and thanks for taking the time to reply,
Aubin
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Aubin Paul
outlyer@stampede.org