john@ecsvax.UUCP (John Hogan) (06/22/89)
A while back I asked for suggestions on displaying and printing the entire Greek alphabet using an IBM PC AT and a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer. I also expressed a preference for WordPerfect 5.0. Several people sent me useful information, and I have found several solutions: The word processor Nota Bene from Dragonfly in New York (212) 334 0445 would have done exactly what I want, which is to serve as a good word processor in English that will let me include small sections of ancient Greek. The list price is about $550, but I was told the program could be obtained for $250-300 from mail order houses. The most serious drawback here is that I would have had to change word processors. Two other programs, FontMax (Intercontinental Software Systems, Santa Barbara, CA; phone: (805) 964 9671) and Lines, Boxes, Etc. (MAP Systems, Inc., Houston, TX; phone: (800) 527 2851, work within WordPerfect 5.0. FontMax is the more promising product, in that it can redefine the keyboard and has an interesting font editor. The font editor allows you to create any character you want, or even to create an entirely new character set. FontMax also includes a Japanese character set that the the developers have put together. The price for the entire package is $129.00 Unfortunately, the program has some bugs, which make it a little unstable. My AT crashed and froze up several times while I used it, and I don't think this was due to "user error." The demonstration disk left my VGA adapter in another display font from the normal IBM character set. The new font was very attractive, but line draw in WordPerfect no longer worked well. Lines, Boxes, etc. uses the more conventional Ctrl-V (Compose) feature of WordPerfect character set support, and is thus less handy than FontMax. But Lines, Boxes, Etc. is very stable, and it works quite well with the HP LaserJet II, the DeskJet II, and most dot matrix printers that have download capability and an IBM/Epson emulation mode. Both FontMax and Lines, Boxes, Etc. support VGA, EGA, and Hercules RAMFONT display adapters. The people who developed FontMax are in the process of releasing a new version, which should rectify the problems with their current version. I have not tried the new version. John Hogan CSC RTP, NC 27709 ...!mcnc!ecsvax!john (919) 549 7534