tuba@ur-tut.UUCP (Jon Krueger) (02/01/86)
What's all this business about linkers that only support monofont symbols? When I name a variable "counter" in 10 point Helvetica, the last thing I mean is "counter" in 14 point Courier. Linkers that fold fonts into a single stripped typewriter-like system font should be abolished! That's like not having font sensitivity in the first place. If this is what our programming environments are going to be like, we might as well all go back to 8-bit ASCII!
mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan) (02/03/86)
In article <343@ur-tut.UUCP> tuba@ur-tut.UUCP writes: >What's all this business about linkers that only support monofont >symbols? When I name a variable "counter" in 10 point Helvetica, >the last thing I mean is "counter" in 14 point Courier. Linkers >that fold fonts into a single stripped typewriter-like system >font should be abolished! That's like not having font sensitivity >in the first place. If this is what our programming environments >are going to be like, we might as well all go back to 8-bit ASCII! But are you *WRONG* if you think that is a joke. Tuba is RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT, except for missing out the other essential attributes that we will need if we are going to get an environment fit for the 1960's, let alone the late 70's or even 80's. What about colour? I want to be able to grep for all the 10 point helvetica non-alphabetic strings in red, because that is the way that my application displays error messages. I'm concerned about orientation too - but the reasons for that are secret. Is ``italicness' an attribute or a separate font? What if I have a private set of attributes that I want characters to have that don't fit into the codeset currently in use? What is happening about a design of a regular way of redefining a ``character'' that allows me simply to change the definition of what a character is, at the head of my program, that will still allow all the other stuff (ctype, strcmp) etc. to work, yet allow me to diddle with attributes as I see fit? Get your thinking caps on, Netland, and see if you can come up with something. If you don't think that this is important, go read net.dead-sea-scrolls or something. -- Mike Banahan, Technical Director, The Instruction Set Ltd. mcvax!ukc!inset!mikeb
asw@rlvd.UUCP (Antony Williams) (02/04/86)
In article <832@inset.UUCP> mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan) writes: >In article <343@ur-tut.UUCP> tuba@ur-tut.UUCP writes: >>What's all this business about linkers that only support monofont >>symbols? When I name a variable "counter" in 10 point Helvetica, >>the last thing I mean is "counter" in 14 point Courier. Linkers I hope you don't ever do that, but I agree with the sentiment which follows. >>that fold fonts into a single stripped typewriter-like system >>font should be abolished! That's like not having font sensitivity >I'm concerned about orientation too - but the reasons for that are secret. are you showing off? :-) if so, what? > >Is ``italicness' an attribute or a separate font? Italic is a separate font (some characters have different shapes, eg 'a' and 'g'). Slant is an attribute. One of the things Apple got wrong with the Mac was to call slanted fonts Italic. This breaks the 'WYSIWYG' correspondence between MacWrite and the LaserWriter. > >What if I have a private set of attributes that I want characters to have >that don't fit into the codeset currently in use? What is happening about >a design of a regular way of redefining a ``character'' that allows >me simply to change the definition of what a character is, at the head >of my program, that will still allow all the other stuff (ctype, strcmp) >etc. to work, yet allow me to diddle with attributes as I see fit? Get >your thinking caps on, Netland, and see if you can come up with something. >If you don't think that this is important, go read net.dead-sea-scrolls >or something. >-- Take a look at the Tioga system at PARC, or the work done by the Xerox Star people. I think the basic message is that the Unix approach to character strings is inadequate for *any* natural language. Tony -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Williams |Informatics Division UK JANET: asw@uk.ac.rl.vd |Rutherford Appleton Lab Usenet: {... | mcvax}!ukc!rlvd!asw |Chilton, Didcot ARPAnet: asw%rl.vd@ucl-cs.arpa |Oxon OX11 0QX, UK