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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!diku!keld
From: keld@diku.UUCP (Keld J|rn Simonsen)
Newsgroups: net.text
Subject: troff special chars - naming them
Message-ID: <1065@diku.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Jul-85 13:47:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: diku.1065
Posted: Fri Jul 19 13:47:50 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 01:13:44 EDT
Organization: DIKU, U of Copenhagen, DK
Lines: 23

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I would like to discuss special char naming in troff (titroff/ditroff)
This area is very messy, every typesetter owner seems to invent
his own names, and we thereby loose portability of documents.
This is especially true in Europe, where we have all these
strange languages, almost one per country.

The rules: when a letter is composed of an accent and a latin letter
you specify the accent first. Accents used: ' ` : , ~ ^ maybe more.

Special letters not accented: ae AE oe OE /o /O oa oA (Aangstroem)
ij IJ ss. The meaning should be obvious.

Design criteria: I have chosen a graphical memnonic scheme
of international reasons. If you choose an abbrevation
which is language bound, this is not likely to be recognised
in other countries with other languages. Also the same graphical
char may have different meanings in various countries, eg. the
oA - in Danish it is known as a Danish letter AA,
in other countries it is just known as Aangstroem,
it seems better to use the graphical description:
an 'A' with a circle above it.