Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!adobe!heaven!glenn
From: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PostScript Level II, contextual forms
Message-ID: <260@heaven.woodside.ca.us>
Date: 29 Aug 90 18:47:19 GMT
References: <9607@goofy.Apple.COM> <1289.26d27708@waikato.ac.nz> <1330.26d576c4@waikato.ac.nz> <1990Aug24.182905.24152@ico.isc.com> <1376.26dc15f6@waikato.ac.nz>
Reply-To: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid)
Organization: RightBrain Software, Woodside, CA
Lines: 36

In article <1376.26dc15f6@waikato.ac.nz> ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:
>Are you suggesting that all these applications reinvent the writing-system-
>dependent aspects of text handling? Isn't PostScript important precisely
>because of the fact that it provides a common solution to several common
>problems of text handling? Wouldn't it be nice if it were extended to solve
>more of them?

I would have to say, yes, word-processing applications must be rewritten to
adapt to writing-system-dependent text handling.  Would you expect your
English-Language word processor to automatically adapt to, say, Japanese,
just because you installed a Kanji font in your system?  The answer is
pretty clearly "no", I think, unless you have the benefit of something like
Apple's ScriptManager, which is exactly the layer between the application
and the printer that Dick mentioned, and is probably the right way to go.
On the NeXT computer there is a Text object that can be made to perform
writing-system-dependent operations without modification to the application.
On the PC, I'm not aware of this level of abstraction in any of the window
environments, but it may be there.

I fully agree with Dick that your printer (i.e. PostScript) should not be
formatting your document, breaking lines, or otherwise making layout
decisions.

>By the way, AFM files don't go half of the way towards addressing the
>points I raised.

I believe that the AFM format has been extended to cover other writing systems
like Japanese.  Try out the Adobe file server and/or contact Adobe for more
information.

(Glenn) cvn

-- 
 Glenn Reid				RightBrain Software
 glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us		PostScript/NeXT developers
 ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn		415-851-1785