"Write lastChange" and UFOs

Glyphs
#1

Hi @GeorgSeifert —

I noticed when working with UFOs in Glyphs 3.1.2 (3151), Glyphs seems to ignore the “Write lastChange” custom parameter.

To reproduce:

  1. Open Glyphs 3, make a new font.
  2. Open Font Info, add “Write lastChange” custom parameter, and uncheck it.
  3. Save as UFO.
  4. Make a new glyph, “A”, add a contour to it.
  5. Save — glyph is saved with “com.schriftgestaltung.Glyphs.lastChange” lib item in “A.glif”.
  6. Edit “A”.
  7. Save — “com.schriftgestaltung.Glyphs.lastChange” time/date updates in in “A.glif”.

It seems like glyphs is not obeying the “write lastChange” parameter with UFOs and writing the “lastChange” lib item to the glyph lib anyway. Like with .glyphs files, this makes version control quite noisy. If possible I would like to be able to disable writing the “lastChange” lib item to UFOs in the same way you can for .glyphs files.

To be fair, the description for the custom parameter says "If disabled, prevents the Last Changed Date from being written into the .glyphs file. " Is this because Glyphs requires it in some way for UFOs where it does not for .glyphs files?

Thanks very much!

Colin

#2

Here is a screen recording if it helps —

#3

that parameter is only supposed to control if the date is written to the .glyphs file. But it makes sense to also check it when writing .ufos.

#4

@GeorgSeifert Sure — I can see in the description of the “write lastChange” custom parameter that it’s only intended for .glyphs files, but is there any reason it cannot also provide the same function to UFOs?

#5

No reason. Just have to implement it.

1 Like
#6

I just had a look and it seems there is a secret parameter “Disable Last Change” already.

And I added the support for “Write lastChange”, too.

1 Like
#7

This was the implementation in Glyphs 2. For Glyphs 3 we decided to reformulate the semantics positively so the checkbox status corresponds to the effect of the parameter.

1 Like
#8

But the “Disable Last Change” is still used for the ufo export. I fixed that too.

2 Likes
#9

Thanks, @GeorgSeifert! Looking forward to using it!

#10

I just tried it out in the Beta, it’s all working great. Thanks again, @GeorgSeifert !