[tex-live] merging texmf-doc into texmf-dist

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 19 February 2009 Philip TAYLOR wrote:

 > Werner LEMBERG wrote:
 > 
 > > Note, however, that most of the simplified character shapes are not
 > > arbitrary but based on hand-written forms of `Caoshu' (草書), a kind
 > > of cursive script used since centuries to write texts very quickly
 > > with a brush.
 > 
 > Interestingly, Daniels and Bright [1] say nothing about this.
 > Their observation is "It has now become a task for the people of
 > China to read and write the unfamiliar complicated forms of the
 > characters.  In contrast (sic), it is hard for the people of Taiwan
 > to read and write the alien simplified script of China."
 > 
 > ** Phil.
 > --------
 > [1] /The World's Writing Systems/, OUP, ISBN 1996 0-19-507993-0

Phil, if a book claims to cover all the world's writing systems, it
necessarily has to be incomplete.  Or it has to be as large as the
DEC VMS manual, you certainly remember the good old times :)

Werner's link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caoshu is very interesting.
I always wondered why the style of Hiragana is so different from
Katakana and Kanji, but now it's clear.

What we are discussing here is not related to TeX Live and maybe we
should continue the discussion privately.

However, I send this mail to the list because maybe someone is
interested in a reprint of a very interesting book which is probably
still available in Germany:

  Carl Faulmann, Buch der Schrift, zweite vermehrte und verbesserte
  Auflage, Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1880.

Faulmann tried to describe all the world's writing systems, but of
course, such a book can never be complete.  However, it's good for new
questions: What is Firaganna?

The reprint is published by Matrix Verlag GmbH, Wiesbaden, 2004.
ISBN 3-937715-49-5.

Regards,
  Reinhard.

PS:  The full title of the book is:

              Das
        BUCH DER SCHRIFT
         enthaltend die
    Schriftzeichen und Alphabete
    aller Zeiten und aller Völker
              des 
           Erdkreises

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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