dgc@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU (11/05/86)
It supports the laserwriter and comes with a complete set
of bit-mapped fonts (which look better than the laserwriter
built-in fonts).
That is, of course, a matter of opinion.
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I don't want to waste laser-lover readers time with my comments.
But, of course you are right, it is indeed a matter of opinion.
However, take a look at the fonts. I think the reason is simply that
metafont does a better job of "discretizing" to the 300 dots per inch
resolution of the laserwriter than the postscript algorithm used in the
laserwriter.
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The built-in PostScript fonts have several inherent advantages,
among them the ability to automatically make a font of high
resolution at an arbi trary size. While it is possible to
theoretically make any font you will need ahead of time if you
have Metafont (and a spare 8650 available), in practice this
is cumbersome. I wonder if the aforementioned "complete set"
comes with a Roman font at 66.9 pt? What would I have to do if
I absolutely needed one?
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The answer is "no". The "complete set" refers to the fonts necessary
for AmSTeX, Plain Tex, and LaTeX. Again, I agree with you that the
ability to create fonts of arbitrary size is a major advantage of the
laserwriter. It is rumored that shortly Adobe Systems will produce
a postscript version of Knuth's Computer Roman Fonts. Then we can
directly compare the output of the discretization algorithms. As for an
8650, probably within three to five years we will find PC's as capable
as it, at least for this purpose.
dgc