Re: The 8r strategy (Was: Unsubscribe)

[Sebastian Rahtz <s.rahtz@elsevier.co.uk>]

Arthur Ogawa writes:
 > PTI now bundles dvips with their product, FYI. 
thats interesting

 > psnfss-class fonts, I understand, possibly inaccurately, that Sebastian,
 > in a recent change to his fontinst work had inadvertently lost ligatures
 > entirely. I expect that he has reinstalled or will reinstall those
 > ligatures.
yes i lost them; yes, i got them back; but this was only in a
unadvertised beta release

 > not the use of such an encoding is and will be supported by the
 > developers of the psnfss font metrics and others who might post metrics
 > based on Sebastian's fontinst work.
 > 
 > I'd like to know for the sake of future planning WRT Textures, 
the *encoding* is fixed. no problem. the fonts will continue to be
issued, and their existence is supported. If someone wants to write
style files based on using them directly, they are very welcome. I
dont think the LaTeX2e support team will do so, however.

 > 1. Whether users of Texture can depend on continuing to use
 > Constantine's 8r encoding work in the form of his 8r.mtx, that is, will
 > psnfss metrics and their like continue to be compatible with 8r.mtx?
yes, definitely. i see no reason to change

 > 2. Who else uses the 8r-fonts approach? Dvips? Dvipsone?
I am not sure what Tom's plans are. dvipsone can use 8r, of course,
but Y&Y prefer their texnansi

 > 3. What means do dvips users employ that avoids their use of 8r.mtx? Is
 > it the TeXBase1Encoding.pro file? 
yes

 > 4. More generally: it appears that the 8r-fonts work represents a
 > bifurcation point. I'm trying to understand the implications of this
not entirely sure i see your point. why is it a bifurcation?

 > I appreciate your help in understanding these points. If there exists
 > any documentation of same, please point me at it.
see the LaTeX Graphics Companion :-}

sebastian