The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
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Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#2Painful to read something easily solved by free software, even in 1993
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#3Painful to read something easily solved by free software, even in 1993
Really? One problem was the lack of diverse fonts with an ə in it. How does free software solve that? Another was the different programs used different ways to input the ə character. Free software doesn't help there - why would they all use the same entry sequence? A third was that no keyboard supported that common character in the home row. While key remappers exist, what should the new standard layout be?
Had they chosen æ instead then they could have just used Latin-1 and the large number of existing fonts, keyboards, etc. for languages like Danish which already solved the problem.
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#4Painful to read something easily solved by free software, even in 1993
Really? One problem was the lack of diverse fonts with an ə in it. How does free software solve that? Another was the different programs used different ways to input the ə character. Free software doesn't help there - why would they all use the same entry sequence? A third was that no keyboard supported that common character in the home row. While key remappers exist, what should the new standard layout be? Had they…
(When I wrote "solve" I meant "easily solve." Obviously you can use free software to write new fonts. The author clearly stated that a limiting factor was the lack of experience in how to design new fonts, pointing out that the font they developed was meant for 12pt and didn't scale correctly.)
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#5"You're right. Man should not be a slave to technology. The 'tail shouldn't wag the dog'. But that's idealistic and unreal. Technology always has its own limitations and parameters. It's not the first time technology has shaped the alphabet. The same story has been repeating itself since the origin of the alphabet. Greek and Latin were clearly determined by the hammer and chisel against marble - it's easier to carve straight lines in stone than rounded ones. That's why so many of our capitals are based on straight lines. The cursive Arabic was influenced by pen; cuneiform, by clay and sharp stick. Other alphabets were created by carving on bamboo. Simply today, the determining tools are fonts, computer keyboards, and satellite transmissions - the only difference being that they're a bit new and unfamiliar in the alphabet designers' hands."
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#6I remember we had problems with Norwegian fonts in the early 1990s - printing, copying between computers and email would invariably mess up the æ, ø and å. Even the computer science department of the university I attended in the mid-90s didn't get it right. I think it took close to ten years before the majority of printouts and emails were correct.
But compared to Azerbaijan, I understand we were lucky - at least we didn't have to mess around with creating our own fonts :)
Good point on how tools put constraints on expression, BTW. I guess ASCII art is another example, and the ASCII smiley :-) is still with us.
Even today mixing text and freehand drawing or images is troublesome enough that we rarely bother. In a sense it is somewhat curious that 60 years of computer science has not been enough to replicate the convenience of a handwritten note...
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#7Also relevant: "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets"
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#8Who'd have known I'd cause so much trouble.
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#9"You're right. Man should not be a slave to technology. The 'tail shouldn't wag the dog'. But that's idealistic and unreal. Technology always has its own limitations and parameters. It's not the first time technology has shaped the alphabet. The same story has been repeating itself since the origin of the alphabet. Greek and Latin were clearly determined by the hammer and chisel against marble - it's easier to carve…
then on the next § she just contradicts this one.
Also it's from 2002 and now i'm curious how it ended.
Re: The Upside-Down "e" - an Editor's Nightmare (1993)
#10Painful to read something easily solved by free software, even in 1993
most free software were CMKY agnostic until recently.