Re: utf 8 / test file

[Simon Pepping <spepping@scaprea.hobby.nl>]

On Mon, Dec 09, 2002 at 12:26:16AM +0100, Hans Hagen wrote:
> At 09:38 PM 12/8/2002 +0100, you wrote:
> 
> For Context this might be worked out as follows: Each font family must
> >be in a known encoding. When a font family is loaded, the encoding and
> >the associated font family are added to a table of loaded
> >encodings. When a unicode character is sought, the loaded encodings
> >are scanned in the order in which they appear in the table, until an
> >encoding is found that provides a glyph for that character.
> 
> hm, must think this over, esp since tex has no way (except measuring) to 
> determine if a slot is really taken

My idea was that the encoding should indicate which slots are
provided (if the font complies).
 
> >The NFSS in LaTeX provides a default encoding for a character (not to
> >be confused with Context's default encoding, which is a different
> >thing). When the character is not found in the current encoding, it is
> >taken from this default encoding. Such a strategy may be more
> >efficient than going through the list of loaded encodings.
> 
> eh ... context does have fall backs (nearly always something default, often 
> very plain); if something does not show up, it's probably not defined 
> (yet); so, maybe i misunderstand you

I do not see this as a fallback but as an optimization. It is an
effective means of knowing which encoding is on top for a certain
character.

> Indeed i think that we should have some reasonable defaults, and it seems 
> that there are no free complete unicode fonts, so we probably end up with 
> something

There are apps, e.g. XMLSpy, that rely on a single font to provide all
required characters. I find that a waste of resources; the user's
fonts are used much better if they can combined into a set.

Simon

-- 
Simon Pepping
email: spepping@scaprea.hobby.nl