[XeTeX] Fontspec: Historic not Historical Ligatures?

[Kevin Klement]

Native (American) English speaker here. Both "historic ligatures" and
"historical ligatures" sound like proper (grammatical) phrases to me,
but they differ in connotation, to me at least. The phrase "historical
ligatures" gives the right connotation, while "historic ligatures"
makes it sound as if the ligatures were important to history, or
represented a milestone in the advance of civilization. This is in the
same sense in which one might say of a monumental event as its
presently happening that "This is a historic day!"

But the difference is subtle, and either word might be used for either
meaning in casual conversation. Wouldn't it be possible, however, to
alias one to the other so that both worked?

On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny at eglug.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 09:02:39AM -0400, David Perry wrote:
>> I just updated my fontspec (along with other packages in MiKTeX) and
>> got errors when using the OT Historical Ligatures feature.  After a
>> moment of panic, since I am working like crazy to finish a book, and
>> after checking my Linux Libertine font again, I read the new
>> fontspec docs.
>>
>> Why has Historical become Historic?  According to
>> http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/featurelist.htm,
>> "historical" is the official name.
>>
>> I certainly don't object to changes that solve problems or make it
>> easier to improve packages down the line, even if such changes cause
>> difficulties in transition.  But this one seems both strange and
>> unnecessary, and apt to break existing documents.  Comments?
>
> I know my English is severely suffering, but "historic ligatures" don't
> sound like a proper phrase, so I'm not sure what was the motivate behind
> the change.
>
> Regards,
>  Khaled
>
> --
>  Khaled Hosny
>  Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
>  Free font developer
>
>
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