[tex-live] Latin Modern bug in lm-texnansi-os.enc

[bop at bop.com.pl]

Hi,

> On the ConTeXT mailing list, Idris posted some messages because he was
> trying to use oldstyle numerals in the latest Latin Modern release,
> and was experiencing two pretty big problems:
> 
>    * really bad kerning around the oldstyle numerals

We would be grateful if we could get more details (which font, which tfm,
which
encoding, pdftex or tex/dvips, on the screen or on the paper, etc.) My first
guess is that proportional figures were used with tabular metrics...

>    * pdftex generated errors for the typewriter fonts, complaining
>      "glyph `one.oldstyle' undefined" etc.

Yeah... This is the result of our decision to comply with the currently
obeying
naming conventions (better to say: fashion). The oldstyle figures that appear
in
ts1 (text companion) encoding are actually *.taboldstyle; the names *.oldstyle
are reserved for proportional glyphs. We included also proportional oldstyle
figures in LMs (and in the TeX Gyre fonts).

> The implementation of 'automatic' oldstyle numbers in ConTeXt uses a
> set of encoding files that used to ship with LM (lm-xxxxxx-os.enc).
> By way of a map file fragment, this allows to switch the fonts
> 'en masse' from lining to oldstyle (and back) without the need for
> special metric files, which is a pretty nice feature.

Don't understand -- the vertical oldstyle digits, in general, have different
metric data (tabular digits differ only with respect to vertical dimensions).
So, the replacement of the encoding implies the replacement of TFMs. Or I
misundersood something.
 
> Those encoding files now apparently obsolete: they still refer to
> glyphs named e.g. `one.oldstyle', whereas in the current release of
> the LM fonts it really should be `one.taboldstyle'.

Yes, as I explained above.

> While writing a bug report, I noticed that these encoding files are no
> longer in the font distribution

No. We have a lot enough of TFMs and I'd be reluctant to add more. The only
resort I can see is to use OTFs...

> Is this trick to get oldstyle now officially unsupported?

Rather not, I've just learned about it. ;-)

> because there are no oldstyle-using TFM files in the LM
> distribution either ...

There are. As I mentioned, ts1 encoding contains oldstyle tabular figures.
Perhaps accessing them needs other tricks, but as long as 256-glyph fonts are
to be used, some glyphs must be accessed clumsily. e.g., proportional digits
(normal and oldstyle).

Cheers -- Jacko