questions & comments

[Allin Cottrell]

On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Thierry Bouche wrote:

> » This is particularly worthwhile if you're using
> » oldstyle numerals (fontinst "j")  in the base virtual font,
> » because those numerals were not designed to appear in
> » superscripts, and look quite wrong when used that way (e.g. as
> » footnote markers).  
> 
> I fully disagree with this point of vue. 

OK, I should be less dogmatic.  I haven't seen OsFs used as
footnote markers in old books, but that doesn't mean it never
happens.

> You should say _some_ well-typest books... others don't. there has
> been a time where the only availale digits were hanging ones. 

In books of that time, would footnotes not generally have been
indicated by symbols rather than numerals?

> You're not willing to use only small caps for superior
> letters,aren't you?

I find that I have much less use for superior letters than
superior numerals.  The superior letters in the expert sets I've
seen are regular lower-case glyphs (but not a full alphabet).

> ...it's always tedious in tex to use digits that are not at
> their ascii location... 

That was the point of my routine with superiors.etx: the
numerals are accessed at their ASCII locations rather than
having to use special macros.

Allin Cottrell
Department of Economics
Wake Forest University, NC