[CREATE] Microsoft Font Validator open-sourced under the MIT license!

[Hin-Tak Leung]

 Dear all,
 
 I am glad the cat is finally out of the bag:
 
 https://github.com/Microsoft/Font-Validator
 
 and all the stuff I have added are in:
 https://github.com/HinTak/Font-Validator
 
 Mono on non-windows can be used to build and run it. It is
 mainly
 being worked on on Linux, but known to work on Mac OS X
 also.
 
 And many thanks to Aaron Bell of Microsoft for making it
 happen.
 
 The older 2003 binary is still downloadable from the
 Microsoft typography
 we site, and it performs 177 tests AFAIK. Discussion a few
 months ago led to
 a code bundle last updated around 2009 for the last OpenType
 spec
 being prepared (and sanitized...) to be liberated to the
 open-source community.
 The newer 2009 code does 194 tests, as well as testing for
 ClearType
 rasterization, etc.
 
 The 189/194 status is a reference to when the code first
 passed through my
 hands, 5 of the 194 test did not work; it went up to
 193/194, the last one being
 DSIG digital signature verification. There is a bit more
 late-breaking info about that on:
 
 https://github.com/Microsoft/Font-Validator/pull/1
 
 General dev info are in the FontVal-dev.pdf slide, the
 README*'s;
 if you just want to use it, pre-built binary at:
 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/hp-pxl-jetready/files/private-test-data/
 
 There are a few remaining pieces:
 
 - FreeType-based rasterisation
 
 - improving the DSIGInfo tool until it can be scavenged to
 make
 the last DSIG test work - the tool currently justs read the
 signature and tells you about
 the certificates and the digest, but makes not attempts to
 verify either (yet).
 
 - bring it further up from 2009 level AFAIK to the current
 2015 spec level.
 
  And other issues like support for CFF fonts and the missing
 built-in XML reporter
 viewer.
 
 People who like to contribute by testing their favourite
 fonts for
 ISO/IEC 14496-22 spec compliance, fix bugs, etc please feel
 free to do so.
 
 Finishing the remaining pieces sounds like a full time job
 for a few months - and
 I'd welcome interested parties (Adobe? Google?) who iike to
 commission me to
 continue; and please feel free to forward.
 
 Hin-Tak