Re: font names

[spooky!witr@uunet.UU.NET]

>	I don't think X's scheme should be adopted verbatim.  Those
>	pixel-related values should disappear entirely in the TeX world, I
>	think.
	
Why do you think a user should be prevented from specifing the use of
a font that has been pixelated at a specific density?  I would
certainly find that annoying when I am designing fonts...

>	What are the valid uses of the wildcards you can imagine?

WYSIWYG applications.

> I can think of two reasons offhand not to allow wildcards:
> 1) increases complexity of the implementation

Copy the code from the X-Window distribution.

> 2) users will inevitably be lazy...their documents will suddenly
> stop working.

Lazy TeX users can find a plethora of ways to make their documents
``suddenly stop working''.  That's not a good reason to stop unlazy
users from doing usefull things.

The thing to remember is the even if you and I couldn't think of a
reason for someone to use a particular feature (even in our wildest
dreams) that is not a reason to delete that feature.  The will be
someone who *will* think of a use for the feature, and will be rightly
disgruntled if you prevent him/her from using it.

There *are* good reasons for deleting a feature:  a) Impossible to
implement, b) easier way to do the same thing, c) performance
considerations, Etc etc etc...

---
 Robert Withrow, R.W. Withrow Associates, Swampscott MA 01907 USA
 Tel: +1 617 598 4480, Fax: +1 617 598 4430, Email: witr@rwwa.COM