[Fontinst] Vector file for small caps in 8x fonts

[Lars Hellström]

At 01.36 +0100 2002-12-14, Philipp Lehman wrote:
>While working on a fontinst tutorial, I've been looking through some
>old fontinst drivers of mine. I found an encoding vector intended to
>build a T1 encoded small caps font based on an upright 8r font plus
>the corresponding 8x font. Basically, all it does is:
>
>\setcommand\lc#1#2{#1small}
>\setcommand\uc#1#2{#1}
>\setcommand\lctop#1#2{#1small}
>\setcommand\uctop#1#2{#1}
>\setcommand\lclig#1#2{#1small}
>\setcommand\uclig#1#2{#1}
>\setcommand\digit#1{#1}
>\inputetx{T1}

This differs from t1c.etx only in that the latter says

  \setcommand\uclig#1#2{#1spaced}

I believe these `...spaced' glyph names are some invention of Alan's, but I
don't know what reason he may have had for this.

t1c.etx also contains a lot of code for setting various integers, but most
of that is rather pointless (e.g., must be in an MTX file rather than an
ETX file if it is to have any effect). The only potent part is

  \ifisint{capspacing}\then
     \setint{letterspacing}{\int{capspacing}}
  \fi

and I can't recall ever having seen a use for that either.

>I don't recall why I didn't use t1c.etx back then which does the same
>thing. Looking at t1c.etx, I find the following statement:
>
>% T1c.etx -- install a T1-encoded faked small-caps font
>%
>% This is used exclusively to install faked small-caps fonts;
>% real small caps fonts are installed using the default T1.etx.
>
>What I don't get is what's so specific to _faked_ small caps about
>t1c.etx. It seems to work just fine for both faked and real small
>caps. Is this comment misleading or am I missing something here?

I too found it misleading (since I have always used t1c.etx for sc fonts
built with 8x fonts (as do BTW the \latinfamily command)), so I changed it
to

% t1c.etx -- install a T1-encoded faked small-caps font
%
% This is used to install expertized or faked small-caps fonts;
% real small caps fonts built from fonts with variant c8r are
% installed using the default t1.etx.

a couple of months back.

Lars Hellström
:-( who had planned to spend this weekend finishing a new release of
fontinst, but instead finds himself forced to spend it filling in a
research grant application)