Re: fontname postfixes

[Berthold Horn <bkph@ai.mit.edu>]

Hi:

At 04:01 1999-02-23 +0000, Rebecca and Rowland wrote:

>>>>And these Type 1 fonts are most often used *without* any PS interpreter.

>>>Calling them PostScript Type 1 founts is best.  It removes all the
>>>ambiguity you get from calling them `PostScript' (only) or `Type 1' (often
>>>abbreviated to T1) only.

>>OK, you win, I will call them "PS Type 1" to avoid all possible confusion.
>>Even though that name suggests to all Unix people that you need PS to use
>>them :-)

>Well...  Since Unix people don't have access to ATM, who can blame them for
>this misconception?  

Well, I care, because there is a constant danger that a particular world view
can drive development in an undesireable direction.  Undesirable because it
limits what comes out to particular platforms and particular software, or because
in fact it heads straight into a dead end.  Since finally "PS Type 1" seem to have 
been accepted as a good thing, its important not to assume that they have
something to do with PS and develop solutions that in fact only work for PS output.

A small example of what I am talking about is ltxnews, which in one version at least
come out using EC fonts.  The assumption being that everyone should have them
and everyone should use them.  Since they do not exist in "PS T1" format this is
a bad assumption.  Of course it doesn't matter if you are using DVIPS and utilities
to make PK fonts.  But there is no need to have MetaFont in order to use TeX.

So assumptions based on how things work on one platform with one particular 
set of tools can lead to problems.  Since the people doing the development
inevitable are influenced by what tools they use, its important to keep on pointing
out that there are other setups that can be severly impacted by decisions based
on what their tools can provide.  And converesly, they do not provide hooks for what
is not available with their favourite tools.

Suppose for example, the LaTeX developers went in a direction that made it 
impossible to run things with OzTeX on the Mac.  Presumably you would
speak up before that went on too long  :-)

>Well...  Since Unix people don't have access to ATM, who can blame them for
>this misconception?  

There are rasterizers available for X Windows that make it equally
possible to work with "PS T1" fonts without ever using PostScript
(It's not clear why this hasn't caught on more).

Regards, Berthold.



Berthold K.P. Horn	Cambridge, Massachusetts (M)