From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 6 09:23:12 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89B2B16A41B for ; Sat, 6 Oct 2007 09:23:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A60B13C45A for ; Sat, 6 Oct 2007 09:23:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from kobe.laptop (dialup247.ach.sch.gr [81.186.70.247]) (authenticated bits=128) by igloo.linux.gr (8.14.1/8.14.1/Debian-9) with ESMTP id l969MYEc004555 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:22:58 +0300 Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id l969MTjV002714; Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:22:32 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.1/8.14.1/Submit) id l969MTqV002713; Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:22:29 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:22:28 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Frank Jahnke Message-ID: <20071006092228.GA2185@kobe.laptop> References: <1191604254.2944.12.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com> <86k5q1gs8t.fsf@Llea.celt.neu> <1191621784.2944.60.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1191621784.2944.60.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, score=-3.913, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, AWL 0.49, BAYES_00 -2.60) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr X-Spam-Status: No Cc: michaelgrunewald@yahoo.fr, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Equations X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:23:12 -0000 On 2007-10-05 15:03, Frank Jahnke wrote: >On Fri, 2007-10-05 at 23:34 +0200, michaelgrunewald@yahoo.fr wrote: >> I am always a bit surprised that TeX was released in 78 (before my >> birth!) and---despite its algorithms are published---its output >> quality remains unmatched [1] by common programs. Why these programs >> do not apply TeX's strategies to solve their problems? This makes me >> wonder. > > This is a good question. TeX didn't really hit its stride until about > 1989 (with Metafont and the language freeze), and the effort learned a > lot from troff. Nevertheless, I am always struck by how ugly is the > type that Word produces. You can always tell. I've read about how > sophisticated its algorithm for this or that is, but the end result is > terribly inferior to both troff and TeX. > > I don't really know why -- and it extends beyond the hyphenation > algorithm to things like inter-word kerning and type face formation -- > but I just don't like the way Word documents look. Maybe one of these > days I'll look into it. I also find the insistence of the TeX > community to use the dreadful CM font family to be misguided. There's > a reason that the classical fonts are classics. As far as journals are concerned, I think the insistence about CM fonts is usually an attempt to "keep the original style of the journal", and not so much a lack of respect for the beauty of classic font families. Since the first releases of TeX, there have been many interesting developments about font-handling in the TeX world, like the typeface definitions of ConTeXt, and the drop-in packages of LaTeX which allow one to use Palatino, Helvetica, and other classic fonts. This is getting off-topic for the original topic, but I learnt something new (about the LyX wiki), so -- at least for me -- it was worth it :) Giorgos