Windows system font loader loads older font when multiple version is present

[RagibHasin]

As this crate loads every font from C:\Windows\Fonts directly, it loads a potentially older version of a font, if the older version comes first in the file list.

For example, in C:\Windows\Fonts

     LastWriteTime      Name
     -------------      ----
16 Mar 23  3:21 PM      iosevka-ahad-regular.ttf
17 Mar 23  8:59 PM      iosevka-ahad-regular_0.ttf

Here iosevka-ahad-regular_0.ttf is of a later date and is registered with the Windows registry. However, as iosevka-ahad-regular.ttf comes first, it gets loaded which leads to a deviation of behavior from other software.

[RazrFalcon]

fontdb isn't designed to replace the system API and not designed to replicate its edge cases.

Is this Windows behavior specified anywhere? Are you suggesting we're suppose to sort fonts by data/time as well?

[RagibHasin]

If we don't want to access Windows font management APIs, then I think there are two options:

1. Read the font list from the registry
   • Benefit: almost the same thing the font management API internally does, so maximal compatibility
   • Drawback: still needs to access some platform-specific APIs
2. Sort the fonts by date-time
   • Benefit: no need for any platform-specific API
   • Drawback: there may be some font that has an older timestamp but is registered with the registry

[RazrFalcon]

I will think about. Low priority.