We considered the supplier-first arrangement in use at many sites:
texmf/fonts/supplier/typeface/type/
This improves the maintainability of the font tree, since all files comprising a given typeface are in one place, but unless all the programs that search this tree employ some form of caching, there are serious performance concerns. For example, in order to find a `TFM' file, the simplest implementation would require TeX to search through all the directories that contain `PK' files in all modes and at all resolutions.
In the end, a poll of developers revealed considerable resistance to implementing sufficient caching mechanisms, so this arrangement was abandoned. The TDS arrangement allows the search tree to be restricted to the correct type of file, at least. Concerns about efficiency remain, but there seems to be no more we can do without abandoning subdirectory searching entirely.
We also considered segregating all font-related files strictly by file type, so that METAFONT sources would be in a directory `texmf/fonts/mf', property list files in `texmf/fonts/pl', the various forms of Type 1 fonts separated, and so on. Although more blindly consistent, we felt that the drawback of more complicated path constructions outweighed this. The TDS merges file types (`mf' and `pl' under `source', `pfa' and `pfb' and `gsf' under `type1') where beneficial.
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.