From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/6993 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Taco Hoekwater Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: FAQ: fonts Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 14:05:15 +0100 Sender: owner-ntg-context@let.uu.nl Message-ID: <20020225140515.4511882f.taco@elvenkind.com> References: <200202242231.g1OMVT201729@nathir.fiee.lan> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035397489 15503 80.91.224.250 (23 Oct 2002 18:24:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 18:24:49 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: ntg-context@ntg.nl In-Reply-To: <200202242231.g1OMVT201729@nathir.fiee.lan> Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:6993 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.context:6993 On Sun, 24 Feb 2002 23:31:29 +0100 "Henning Hraban Ramm" wrote: > There are some typescripts for usual fonts in your ConTeXt distribution. But > they seldom seem to work. It's better to make your own new metrics and > typescripts. I don't want to diminish the work you've done on this FAQ, but I find that the documentation for fonts (and in fact the whole subsystem) is getting awfully confusing. This is caused by a number of factors: - mtexfont.pdf and mfonts.pdf overlap eachother in areas where they shouldn't - mfonts.pdf explains *too much* (e.g. the section on \definefont, and the stuff about the traditional system with \definebodyfont) - the FAQ is too terse and doesn't mention the nasty pitfalls (like the fact that you *cannot* redefine a typescript collection) - There are too many 'example' files in the distribution that fairly unusable in the real world (like type-buy.tex) - the whole font subsystem is still backward compatible so all of the old commands still function more ore less as they used to - \starttypescript is an awful command. It does a lot of stuff depending on 'special options', and the documentation for these options is incomplete - The same is true for \definetypeface. In order to create some sort of logic: There should be aliases defined for at least the following commands, and the documentation should stick to using these names instead of the basic command. This will make the documentation and usage much clearer without introducing extra overhead in the ConTeXt core. \definefontsynonym ------------------ Is used for two different things: - Mapping generic names to font family names, as in \definefontsynonym [Serif] [TimesRoman] - Mapping font family names to disk file names, as in \definefontsynonym [TimesRoman] [tir] [encoding=texnansi] The second usage needs an alias (I propose \definefontfile), so that the above can be written as: \definefontsynonym [Serif] [TimesRoman] \definefontfile [TimesRoman] [tir] [encoding=texnansi] \starttypescript ---------------- Is used for *a lot* of different things. \starttypescript [map] ********************* First, here is one call I do not fully understand: \starttypescript[map][texnansi] \loadmapfile [texnansi-urw-times.map] \stoptypescript Assuming I get it right, this is what should happen: - Context internally has defined a very very special typescript called map. - This is not 'really' a typescript, but behaves more like a list. A list of pdftex map files, in fact. - Whenever anybody calls *any* typescript, this special typescript is automatically activated as well. - the net result of that is that all of the map files (in the correct encoding) are loaded by pdftex at every typescript change. If I get this right, the whole thing is an attempt to make pdftex read map files dynamically at runtime instead of statically preloading all of the map files as soon as the executable starts. Sadly, this won't work correctly until pdftex is patched to accept map files during a run (in the current situation, pdftex only allows dynamic loading of map files before the first page is shipped out, not afterwards). Anyway, this is *ugly* when used in a call to \starttypescript. It would be much nicer to have a new command: \definetypescriptencodingmapfile [texnansi] [texnansi-urw-times.map] (or even \defineencodingmapfile, since there is no real relation to any specific typescript name, only to the encoding) \starttypescript [*] [*] [size] ******************************* Why not call this \starttypescriptsizes ? \starttypescript [*] [*] [name] ******************************* Why not call this \starttypescriptnames ? \starttypescript (in general) **************** The exact usage of the options to this command is incredibly confusing. If I understand it all correctly, then what is generally used as the *first* argument in the documentation (serif|sans|mono|math) is more optional than the second (the typescript name | default). At the same time, I get the impression from the documentation that the order is not important at all (mfonts.pdf page 8). This is clearly not true. \usetypescript ************** I think it is a little odd that documents now start with: \usetypescriptfile[type-mytimes] \usetypescript[mytimes] Hans, do you think it is possible to add the file loading/checking code to \usetypescript? If I understand this correctly, then \usetypescript basically has the same arguments as \starttypescript. It follows that if you use this command in a typescript definition file, it only functions as a shortcut to get to (parts of) another typescript. Hans, is this correct? \definetypeface *************** At one point in time I understood what this command does. But not any longer. For one, I don't understand how it is possible that it appears *inside* a typescript definition. I thought it was a way to map a number of definebodyfonts into a single command. But then again, this is also what typescripts do. So how can one be part of the other? -- groeten, Taco