Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!otello!gear!cadlab!staff
From: staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: troff postprocessors for ISO 8859 characters
Message-ID: <620@cadlab.sublink.ORG>
Date: 4 Jan 91 14:08:13 GMT
References: <1990Dec28.195703.2749@cbnewsl.att.com> <1038@ecicrl.UUCP> <1991Jan3.151843.24109@cbnewsl.att.com>
Organization: CAD.LAB, Bologna, Italia
Lines: 39


npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson) writes:
	...
:Chris Lewis requests an additional field in the width
:tables to instruct troff how to manufacture the additional
:8859 characters that are not in ASCII. Some of them appear
	...
:My inclination is to support two and only two modes for
:"production": PostScript and nroff. If you want ISO 8859
:nroff, get an ISO 8859 terminal. The stuff about 7 bit
:shorthand for 8 bit characters was intended for debugging
:and interchange, not production. So far, no one has answered
:my previous question: will this direction meet the needs
:of the European market?

Speaking as a European whose language needs very few diacritical marks
on letters (just a few accented vowels), I'd say the PS-or-nroff
direction would NOT be quite satisfactory; Chris's proposal looks VERY
much more attractive.  How a Turk would feel about it, I can't say.

Regarding your previous question re Laserjet printers, I must say that
they and their clones appear to be VERY well situated in the Italian
market; probably MORE popular than PS printers, even including the ones
you obtain by tweaking a Laserjet, maybe because such tweaks don't
always work well.  Lack of Laserjet support, in other terms, WOULD be
a (minor, but perceptible) handicap in the Italian market - although I
understand your arguments regarding why and wherefore you only want to
support Postcript output for ISO 8859.

---
Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 53, Bologna, Italia
Email: (work:) staff@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only), Fidonet: 332/401.3 (home only).
-- 
Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 53, Bologna, Italia
Email: (work:) staff@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only), Fidonet: 332/401.3 (home only).