Newsgroups: comp.text
Path: utzoo!utgpu!utfyzx!sq!murray
From: murray@sq.sq.com (Murray Maloney)
Subject: Re: What features would you like in GNU troff?
Message-ID: <1989Jun23.190228.12731@sq.sq.com>
Summary: SoftQuad's font family implementation
Keywords: troff font families SoftQuad
Reply-To: murray@sq.com (Murray Maloney)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
References: <779@pcrat.UUCP> <355@wjh12.harvard.edu> <8388@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <3236@gos.ukc.ac.uk> <166@unmvax.unm.edu>
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 89 19:02:28 GMT

>In article <166@unmvax.unm.edu> brainerd@unmvax.unm.edu (Walt Brainerd) writes:
>>In article <3236@gos.ukc.ac.uk>, iau@ukc.ac.uk (I.A.Utting) writes:
>>>As quoted from <159@unmvax.unm.edu> by Walt Brainerd:
>>> A feature we have not implemented, but think desirable is font families,
>>> so that switching to _italic_ means italic of the current font family,
>>> for example.
>> [Stuff about seting up alternate typesetter (-Txxx) variants deleted.]

SoftQuad has implemented font family support.  For consideration in the 
proposed GNU troff -- I submit the following excerpt from our documentation:

<EXCERPT> **********************************************************************
Selecting a	The default font family in sqtroff is T (Times).*  When the
Font Family	current typeface is selected as one of the generic typeface 
		names (R, I, B, BI)**, the typeface actually selected will be
		the corresponding member of the current*** font family.  That 
		is, when Helvetica is the current font family, then ``.ft B''
		is equivalent to ``.ft HB'', and either can be used to select 
		Helvetica Bold.  (The same applies to ``\f''.)

		The font family may be specified with the ``.ffam'' request,
		and the current font family name is available in the 
		``.ffam'' register.
</EXCERPT> *********************************************************************
<FOOTNOTES> ********************************************************************
*    Actually the default is installation dependent.  You can change the default
     for any device in its DESC file  (the device description file).
**   The list of generic typefaces may be extended in the DESC file to include
     other members.  Small caps (SC) and old style figures (OF) are examples.
     This is further supported by something that we call ``logical to physical
     font mapping''.  SoftQuad's font tables allow you to systematically
     map a requested typeface/size to any available typeface/size.
***  The font family, like the typeface and point size, are in the environment.
</FOOTNOTES> *******************************************************************

>In article <166@unmvax.unm.edu> brainerd@unmvax.unm.edu (Walt Brainerd) writes:
>The point of my feature is that this works using two or more font families
>in the same document, so that switching to italic when setting a subhead
>in Helvetica means Helvetica italic and switching to italic when setting
>text in Times means Times italic.

This implies the importance of setting the font family in the environment.
You can have Times family in the text environment, Helvetica in the header
environment, Courier in a source listing environment, etc.   Thus, you can
keep your font requests totally generic (R, I, B, BI) while maintaining 
design standards.  With enough environments at your disposal, the task of
macro programming also becomes less of a chore -- you don't have to write
the code to store and restore formatting parameters.  This has been a big 
win for me when producing manuals at SoftQuad.

<POSTSCRIPT> *******************************************************************
This is turning into an interesting discussion.  It has been quite some time
since troff come under such close scrutiny on the net.  I encourage all
participants to continue posting comments and gripes.  I'm certain that it
will contribute to the development of robust and full-featured versions
of GNU troff and third-party offerings.
</POSTSCRIPT> ******************************************************************

********************************************************************************
Murray C. Maloney		uucp:		{utai|utzoo|uunet}!sq!murray
Documentation Specialist	Internet:	murray@sq.com
SoftQuad Inc.			Phone:		(416) 963-8337