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From: asw@rlvd.UUCP (Antony Williams)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: Re: :-)
Message-ID: <1062@rlvd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 08:11:24 EST
Article-I.D.: rlvd.1062
Posted: Tue Feb  4 08:11:24 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 21:56:36 EST
References: <343@ur-tut.UUCP> <832@inset.UUCP>
Reply-To: asw@rlvd.UUCP (Antony Williams)
Distribution: net
Organization: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Informatics Division, U.K.
Lines: 48

In article <832@inset.UUCP> mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan) writes:
>In article <343@ur-tut.UUCP> tuba@ur-tut.UUCP writes:
>>What's all this business about linkers that only support monofont
>>symbols?  When I name a variable "counter" in 10 point Helvetica,
>>the last thing I mean is "counter" in 14 point Courier.  Linkers

I hope you don't ever do that, but I agree with the sentiment
which follows.

>>that fold fonts into a single stripped typewriter-like system
>>font should be abolished!  That's like not having font sensitivity

>I'm concerned about orientation too - but the reasons for that are secret.

are you showing off? :-) if so, what?
>
>Is ``italicness' an attribute or a separate font?

Italic is a separate font (some characters have different shapes,
eg 'a' and 'g').  Slant is an attribute.  One of the things Apple got
wrong with the Mac was to call slanted fonts Italic.  This breaks the
'WYSIWYG' correspondence between MacWrite and the LaserWriter.


>
>What if I have a private set of attributes that I want characters to have
>that don't fit into the codeset currently in use? What is happening about
>a design of a regular way of redefining a ``character'' that allows
>me simply to change the definition of what a character is, at the head
>of my program, that will still allow all the other stuff (ctype, strcmp)
>etc. to work, yet allow me to diddle with attributes as I see fit? Get
>your thinking caps on, Netland, and see if you can come up with something.
>If you don't think that this is important, go read net.dead-sea-scrolls
>or something.
>-- 
Take a look at the Tioga system at PARC, or the work done by
the Xerox Star people.  I think the basic message is that the Unix
approach to character strings is inadequate for *any* natural language.
	Tony



-- 
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Tony Williams					|Informatics Division
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