Re: French and PS fonts support + migration

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 01:40 PM 8/22/2001 +0200, Damien WYART wrote:
>Dear ConTeXt users,
>
>Currently trying to switch from LaTeX to ConTeXt (using mainly
><http://berend.gameren.nl/tex/LaTeX2ConTeXt.pdf>,and some ConTeXt
>docs), I have a few questions :
>
>- I am mainly writing in French ; I think there is no direct support
>   for this language (even in latest beta). If I remember well, Denis
>   Roegel had begun to work on this. Could you tell me the status of
>   French support in ConTeXt ? Are guillemets correctly handled ? If
>   there is no such support, I will not switch at once.

there is a rough il1 regime now which for most cases should work

guillemots should not be a problem, but i need to know escapes

>- I use bibTeX. I got the latest m-bib (june 2001), but I think there
>   were unsolved problems with it ; is this module really usable and
>   maintained ?

both, since taco uses it for typesetting scientific stuff from kluwer; we 
will probably add a xml interface later this year, next year

>- I have played a bit with fonts in LaTeX and installed some PS Type1
>   fonts with fontinst (even tried to play MM fonts, but stopped before
>   really making them work). Is this reusable with ConTeXt ? Is there a
>   special installation procedure ?

fonts are supported, see relatively new manual mfonts.pdf on our site; 
existing fonts should work ok when set up properly, and you can expect 
quite some new font support pretty soon [tested now]; i really want users 
to use the (free) fonts that are around

mm is no problem [using it now in some projects], but beware: adob eno 
longer supports is [will show up again in open type]

>- I think Thanh's typographical extensions are directly supported in
>   ConTeXt (are they ?). I have not really played with them, due to
>   lack of examples. Could someone provide help about this ?

protruding is supported, and hz will be soon [than is still fixing some 
loose ends]; for protruding + examples see mfonts.pdf

>- I think many things have changed in the latest betas. What I would
>   like to have is a test file where I could type in french, with an
>   already installed font (say Adobe Garamond), using maximal refinment
>   from Thanh and bibliograic files. Is it feasible ? It would really
>   make me *want* to switch rapidly from LaTeX.

actually, the biggest change was the new typescript font layer; once 
stablem this should give downward compatibility to some of the old font-* 
styles, but more important, it will permit pretty hefty mixture of fonts 
[due to proper namespace support] and simple definitions with relative 
scaling.

So, if you have input on french, i'll add it asap; the framework is there 
already.

Hans
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