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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: Re: What do we REALLY want?
Message-ID: <137@opus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Oct-85 03:57:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: opus.137
Posted: Wed Oct 16 03:57:12 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 06:33:30 EDT
References: <723@inset.UUCP> <455@cheviot.uucp>
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 38

> >I believe that the time is now ripe for the computer world
> >to take a jump from the traditional viewpoint and realize
> >that users' requirements in these days of networks and
> >typesetters are already far ahead of anything that an
> >enhanced character set can provide.
>...
> The mention of typesetters shows the way to go. Instead of a concept of
> character set we need the printer's concept of 'font'*...

It's true that we need to understand the world of typesetting, and also
that it gives us some clues about how to proceed from where we are today,
but be careful--the concepts of `font' and `character set' are two entirely
different ideas.  To specify printed material, you specify (among other
things) the characters to be printed and the font to be used in printing
them.  The abstraction `character' is meaningful quite independent of the
font used to represent characters.  For example, spelling and collating are
done without regard to font.  Consider ligatures in the sense they are used
in typesetting English if you need to sort out your ideas about characters
and fonts.  A character is some magic abstraction of an atomic entity at
some level.  A font provides a specific set of physical realizations
(concrete notations) for certain characters.

HOWEVER, the printer's concept of font (or fount, over there) illustrates
the peril of considering character set as a simple, immutable concept.  One
ordinary font might have 150 or so characters.  The total number of
characters possible is in the thousands (at least?)  What do we use for a
character set?  If we choose some small (<200) set of common characters,
how do we represent the rest?  If we attempt to choose some large (>>1000)
set of characters, we come up with the questionable idea that 90%+ of our
characters will not be representable in any given font we pick!  Some sort
of hybrid approach seems necessary somehow.(waffle waffle)  And we certainly
don't want to have to deal with more than one representation of a given
character (e.g., for different fonts) when we are only interested in the
underlying information rather than the presentation.  (The "content" vs.
"presentation" distinction is a key one!)
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Simpler is better.