mason@habs11.enet.dec.com (Gary Mason) (08/19/90)
I have a need to develop a special character set (perhaps a dozen or so
characters). Those writing in the character set are on any number of
different machines (workstations, PCs, Macintoshes, character cell
terminals, etc.) using any number of applications available thereon.
Those reading are on all of the above systems as well. Those printing
the resultant documents have a variety of printers at their disposal.
Some of the printers are among the myriad PostScript printers available.
The objective is to provide a system whereby the largest subset of
readers, and the largest subset of printers, can display documents
containing the special characters.
My first inclination is to try to solve the problem with PostScript.
I can see all kinds of pre and post processing utilities, etc., but
have hopes that the situation may be simpler than that.
For all those who can load the fonts of their choice, and who have
applications that output PostScript, the answer would seem to be to
provide each with a font for their systems, making certain that the
special characters occupied the same positions in each version. Then,
with the normal amount of hacking (if any), all documents from these
systems would be printable by all the printers, provided that a font
was provided to download to their printers before/with the document.
[I fear that most character cell terminals are right out of luck no
matter what.] One of the problems is that the applications available
for each system differ, and the fonts available today that possess the
character set required are not consistent in the placement of the
characters within the fonts. Developing a new one (which is a viable
option) is bound to match some, and not others.
Now I wonder...is there an easier way? Can an actual set of strokes to
define the special characters be output as a graphic, rather than as an
entry into a font table? Can that be done in the middle of a string of
characters in any given font? It seems that macros might be part of the
answer, but I know nothing about the macro capability of PostScript.
If this were the way, I assume that the font in use wouldn't make any
difference, and that when the writer wished to output a special
character, they would create the syntax for the macro call to produce
the appropriate graphic. It would be a bit cumbersome, but would
provide more universality to the document thus produced than is available
today. It also seems as though the text processor being used would be
responsible for actually outputting the construct represented by the
macro, which would be a problem.
Any help (in understanding or examples) would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks...Gary
mason@habs11.enet.dec.com