Re: Unicode plain text

From: Pierre Lewis (lew@nortel.ca)
Date: Mon May 26 1997 - 12:07:00 EDT


In message "Re: Unicode plain text", Edward writes:

> I posted earlier that I think there are more than two, or at least there
> are subtypes of these types.

I still have some reading to do...

> Although we have been promised a complete set of Everson Mono fonts, there
> are syllabic scripts that are almost entirely unreadable in fixed width.

I'm not saying plain text needs to be fixed width. I may work with a
fixed-width font in the editor, and still print in variable width
(altho fixed width makes for better alignment, eg. of tables). Or one
can certainly work entirely with proportional fonts and still generate
plain text files that will print decently anywhere under some minimal
assumptions (such as a reasonable font size -- after all, when I buy a
magazine, I have no control over the font size: I just pick the
appropriate glasses :-)). Anyway, maybe we're getting a bit off topic
here.

> Georgian, Armenian, Cherokee, Cree, Mongolian... However, Hebrew with
> vowels and Arabic with or without vowels would look ghastly in monospace,

Well, I have BDF fonts for both Hebrew/Yiddish and Arabic (the latter
with many forms). Not ideal, but certainly usable, at least in an
editor -- and then I'll print with better fonts (true, I'm not a native
speaker of either). I don't know about the other scripts.

Pierre



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