Hello Giuseppe,
On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Giuseppe Ghibo' wrote:
> So to speak, but why in 2001 A.D. we still have to do with old MSDOS 8+3
> things? Currently every new system supports more than 8+3 characters in
> filename, from Windows, to Unix, to Amiga, Mac, etc.; also for ISO,
> which has Joliet, RockRidge, HSFS, etc. extension to have long file
> names. And all these systems supports at least 31 characters long file
> names, as well as for ISO CD images, which has Joliet, RockRidge, HSFS,
> etc. extension to have long file names.
I agree with this. The font naming system should now be changed. The 8+3
character system was developed purely so that people could use TeX on DOS.
Anyone with an old DOS machine would now have difficulty getting suitable
versions of musch of the necessary support software for any of the more
recent features of TeX/LaTeX and so would have no advantage in installing
a new version of teTeX. If an old version of teTeX was simply dontaed to
some DOS enthusiasts for them to support for DOS machines, then we could
all have the benefits of a sensible filing system.
I have been giving LaTeX and Linux support to people on other mailing
lists for a number of years now, and one of the most common causes of
problems for newcomers to LaTeX is a lack of understanding the font naming
system. Many people have complained on other lists that they like LaTeX,
but do not like being restricted to just one font family, because that is
the way they see it. They look at the confusing set of filenames for
fonts, and think that Computer Modern must be the only font family they
can use.
If the font naming was done on an easily understandable system, a lot of
the millions of newcomers to Linux would start using LaTeX. I have found
with some recent postings I made on the lbc list, that a lot of these
newcomers did start using, and preferring, LaTeX and the other packages in
teTeX, after I had explained some of the necessary basics. A major part of
this has been explaining how to use their Type 1 outline fonts.
Yes! Please can we have the font naming system changed?
Helen McCall
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
