[texhax] \textordfeminine in plain TeX

[Karl Berry]

    $TEXMF/fonts/map/dvips/psnfss/psnfss.map with a line like this:

      phvr8r Helvetica "TeXBase1Encoding ReEncodeFont" <8r.enc 

That won't make "Helvetica" work as an input to testfont.tex.  TeX
doesn't even read that file.  What that is doing is telling dvips that
the PostScript FontName corresponding to phvr8r.tfm is "Helvetica", so
it can output the proper .ps.

    Incidentally, feel free to let it lie.  There is no compelling question

Well, now I am curious too.  "Helvetica" works as the input to
testfont.tex for me too, and I didn't expect this.

kpsewhich Helvetica.tfm returns 
/n/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/cspsfonts-adobe/helvetic/rphvr.tfm

Ok, so it is found (in a rather odd location).

kpsewhich --debug=-1 Helvetica.tfm outputs a ton of stuff.  Searching
for rphvr in the output, I see it comes right after reading
/n/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/map/fontname/texfonts.map.
I'm guessing this is what is happening for you too.

When I replied before, I forgot about that feature I implemented long
ago :).  It probably isn't a good idea these days, but the idea was to
let people use the PostScript names and deal with other font name
(in)compatibilities, like the annoying [l]circ/circle madness.

However, those "raw" fonts, now being found in the "Czech/Slovakian
PostScript font support" package
(http://tug.ctan.org/cgi-bin/ctanPackageInformation.py?id=cspsfonts)
used to be an integral part of the PS font support, but not any more.
Furthermore, they are useless for typesetting.  If you use the \text
command to testfont.tex, you'll see there are no ligatures, etc.  And
the Type1 fonts don't get used either.  So it's not good for those names
to be supported.

I think I am going to delete texfonts.map from fontname and TL and we'll
see if anyone notices.

Thanks :).

Karl