Re: [Groff] PS printing

[M Bianchi]

On Sat, Mar 11, 2006 at 05:41:55PM +0300, Michail Vidiassov wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, M Bianchi wrote:
> 
> >> And the real question behind the poll is what version of the Adobe metrics
> >> to use - PostScript 2 or PostScript 3.
> >>
> > does the default groff change from PS 2 to PS 3 and cause things that
> > used to work "just like I wanted it to" change
> 
> Something is is likely to change if you use 'C with acute'
> and other CE (Central European) symbols.
> 
> Do you?

I don't, and I'm not likely to get too upset if things change in ways that
don't affect me much.  I like groff _because_ formatting adapts to
circumstances when you _compute_ your documents.

But be prepared for those who didn't want things to change because they liked
them the way they were or are in situations where they cannot move forward.

An approach is to do a groff release where the PS 3 fonts are there, but not
used by default, with a notice that in time (say in one year) the default will
change.  Then in the next major release have the PS 2 fonts there, but as a
fall back for those who find the change over too painful.  Then in time (say 5
years) have the PS 2 fonts available from an archive for those who still can
not or will not change.

Much of the pain of open source (and commercial software for that matter) comes
from the assumption that _everyone_ will want the new stuff and so I don't need
to support the old stuff.  Wanting the new stuff may not be enough;
circumstance may not permit it.

--
 Mike Bianchi
 Foveal Systems

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