Message-Id: <9210011606.AA23471@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
In-Reply-To:  <9210011539.AA04358@irfu.irfu.se>; from "Jonathan M. Gilligan" at
              Oct 1, 92 9:38 am
Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 92 17:03:33 MET
From: Bo Thide' <bt@IRFU.SE>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple recipients of <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Subject:      Re: picture mode in LaTeX3/additional fonts in distribution
Status: R


You (Jonathan M. Gilligan) write:
>
> In the discussion of whether to tie LaTeX3 to Postscript, I haven't
> seen a discussion of how one might handle one of the most desirable
> (to me) Postscript features---the ability to rotate boxes, so tables
> can be printed sideways---outside of Postscript. This cannot be
> accomplished with the \special s of any other drivers that I am aware
> of. Perhaps the LaTeX3 folks, along with the DVI standards committee
> could take up the idea of standardizing a rotation \special.
>
> On a related topic, why not have LaTeX3 accomplish fancy graphics as
> Tom Leathrum's mfpic package does: by writing a .mf file, which
> metafont then processes. This saves wear and tear on the
> wheel-reinventing shop and avoids reliance on \special s, since
> metafont is already part of the standard TeX distribution.
>
> ---Jon
>

Most (if not all) of the features available on PostScript printers are
available on other printers (e.g., PCL5 ones) which in turn sometimes
have features not available on PostScript printers.  So a tie between
LaTeX and some particular device/hardware should be avoided at any cost.

Regarding graphics:  In TeX "font graphics" is already supported in a
device independent manner in .pk/.tfm format (used, for instance, in
"mfpic" and "bm2font") so the only natural way to incorporate full
graphics is via such utilities.

Perhaps METAFONT should be replaced by something more general and
versatile, allowing drawing of characters as well as ordinary graphics
and raster pictures?

Bo

--
   ^   Bo Thide'--------------------------------------------------------------
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