glyphsLib should be split into two modules

[simoncozens]

glyphsLib currently does two very different and orthogonal things:

• provides a Python interface to the Glyphs file format (read/write/manipulate).
• Converts between GS* objects and UFO files.

Obviously I get the idea that people who manipulate .glyphs files will often want to then turn them into UFO files, but (a) not necessarily - there are other things that can be done with Glyphs files! and (b) glyphsLib is not the only source of GS* objects (Glyphs being the obvious other one). Currently glyphsLib is a combination refrigerator/microwave. I would rather have a separate refrigerator and microwave.

[madig]

Agree. After a split, the parser and object hierarchy could also be refactored to be less incomprehensible (does glyphLib need to be a potential frontend for the actual Glyphs.app or can we toss the proxies?). glyphsLib is currently off our agenda though, so i'm not expecting to be working on this anytime soon.

[simoncozens]

glyphsLib is currently off our agenda though

Um. Is anyone actually actively maintaining this package? (Looks over sadly at the glyphs3 PR.)

[belluzj]

I'm meaning to review the glyphsLib 3 PR eventually but as we haven't made the move to glyphs 3 at Dalton Maag, it's lower on my priority list and will take me longer than other reviews because I'll have to install glyphs 3 and look at some files and also the MR is huge...

[belluzj]

glyphsLib is currently off our agenda though

To clarify: it's not off the agenda completely, it's just that it's lower in the priority list than it used to be, because it's working OK for Glyphs 2 at the moment (we still have issues from time to time, as MRs from Tom show). But we're still very much using it.

Who is actively using glyphsLib with Glyphs 3? Maybe these users can help you validate your merge request at least from the point of view of functionality (i.e. round-tripping various Glyphs 3 projects and reporting what gets lost in the round-trip. That's a good indication of what your work can/can't handle).