FL5, compiling error message, please help

Andreas Stötzner

… these messages are not meant to be understood by people like me. This time I get:  syntax error at "1"

Can anybody give a hint what it means?

(I checked my code lines about seven times… Blasted.)

Thomas Phinney

It's a syntax error in the FEA code file created by FontLab during compile.
I think it is the line number, and line 1 would almost certainly be in the prefix header, perhaps the languagesystem statement.

But if you can check the temp .fea file created during the build, you should be able to tell for sure. As the build failed, I think it should still be there.

Andreas Stötzner

thank you Thomas. I spotted this file appearing for ca. 1sec in that Library>…>…Features folder and instantly it disappeared, I had no chance to get hold of it. What can be done about it?

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)

Can you manually export a .fea file in FL5? (You can in later versions)

Ray Larabie

FL5 holdouts unite! Check the names of the classes to make sure there are no conflicts. Check for syntax errors within those classes. I think FL5 compiles the content of the classes panel into the OT code before compiling so you won't see any of those errors in the OT panel.

Andreas Stötzner

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) said:

Can you manually export a .fea file in FL5? (You can in later versions)

yes I can export a .fea file. I did, its content starts with a listing of the classes.

Ray Larabie said:

FL5 holdouts unite! …

Yeah!!! You can count on me Ray.

I did already correct an error in the classes names: _kern)   !

But there must be something else.

Andreas Stötzner

Thomas Phinney said:

… line 1 would almost certainly be in the prefix header, perhaps the languagesystem statement.

how ought this line / that statement look like? The 1st line in my current .fea file begins with

        @_kernA=[A Aacute   ……

Thomas Phinney

If export starts with classes, then presumably that is also where the error lay? Def try font generation again!

(Sorry, this is all super old for me. I was using pre-release versions of FontLab VI for a couple of years before it even shipped, so this is like 5+ years ago for me.)

Paul van der Laan

Long shot but a common mistake -- do your features do things with numerals?

Check if those numerals are defined by their glyph name ("one", "two", etc.) and not by their keystroke.

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)

Are you comfortable posting or DMing your feature file, so we can take a look?

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi Andreas, you may want to consider using OTM for a compiler check. The messages log (in the File menu) will inform you about the location of syntax errors, such as:

syntax error at "[class-name]" missing ";" [/TypeDrawers/02-02-2022/A_66_03T_1000.fea 26]

If there are mismatches in the classes or features definitions, OTM will compile anyway by subsetting them:

HOT [NOTE] Glyph "Andreas" not in font. [/TypeDrawers/02-02-2022/A_66_03T_1000.fea 25]

However, as shown below, the aforementioned log will inform you about the what and why of the subsetting. Of course, one can export subsetted features files for use in another font-tools based workflow.

Denis A Serikov

Can I have a look at the .fea file?

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)

I believe I was able to help Andreas, though he hasn't confirmed yet

Andreas Stötzner

I can confirm that there is recent progress in the matter. – Thanks to you all!