TeX & XLFD

[Karl Berry <karl@cs.umb.edu>]

    Fonts should be named using XLFD, and translated into actual font file
    names just like X does it, using font directories.

The capability has been there to do this (under Unix, anyway), ever
since I released 5.851d.   Maybe it was in 5.851c.  If you want to set
up the mapping files and start writing TeX documents using them, go
ahead.  No one will start until someone starts :-)

Many of the things in XLFD are irrelevant to TeX fonts, but whatever.

    This is proven by the fact that new schemes are being decided/developed
    perenially, 

I don't think this is true.  (At the filename level; at the TeX macro
level, the LaTeX folks have invented some new ways to refer to fonts, I think.)

    I'll never understand why TeX types insist upon re-re-re-inventing wheels.

I don't think this is true, either.
Anyway, sometimes what's out there is wrong or not enough.