[mpeg-OTspec] version string issues

[Jonathan Kew]

On 15/7/15 15:23, Martin Hosken martin_hosken at sil.org [mpeg-OTspec] wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I've been looking at the version string in the name table and this is
> what it says:
>
> Version string. Should begin with the syntax 'Version
> <number>.<number>' (upper case, lower case, or mixed, with a space
> between “Version” and the number). The string must contain a version
> number of the following form: one or more digits (0-9) of value less
> than 65,535, followed by a period, followed by one or more digits of
> value less than 65,535. Any character other than a digit will
> terminate the minor number. A character such as “;” is helpful to
> separate different pieces of version information. The first such
> match in the string can be used by installation software to compare
> font versions. Note that some installers may require the string to
> start with “Version ”, followed by a version number as above.
>
> My assumption is that the aim here is to turn a 16.16 fixed point
> number as used in the head table into a string floating point
> representation.

I think this assumption may be flawed. The name ID 5 version number is 
not a floating-point number; it is made up of two integers (major and 
minor version), separated by a period (not a decimal point).

There's not necessarily any particular relationship to the fontRevision 
field in the 'head' table, which 
https://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/head.htm explicitly says is 
"not used by Windows to determine the version of a font".

JK