Re: [Groff] holistic widow elimination

[Pierre-Jean]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> wrote:

>
> > I remember reading (on this list) a PHD thesis by Han The Thanh (of
> > pdfTEX fame) on micro typography, although the original is now a
> > dead link I think I've found it here:-
> > 
> > http://www.pragma-ade.com/pdftex/thesis.pdf
> > 
> > Many thought provoking ideas.
>
> All his ideas (or rather, Hermann Zapf's ideas) have been implemented
> in pdfTeX.  However, this still doesn't solve the original issue
> discussed in this thread.

They are also implemented in Heirloom Troff, which I've used for
the thesis of my wife, and which I'm still using for mine. These
functions are really usefull to shorten or expand a paragraph by
one line. For example, here are some macros that I use:

.de typo
.       \" Default typography adjustment.
.       \" Each paragraph use this.
.   padj                \" paragraph at once interword space adjustment.
.                               \" to get a regular « gris typographique ».
.                               \" An important thing in my opinion, the first
.                               \" thing I've learned to see concerning 
typography.
.   ss 11 0             \" interword space
.   minss 10    \" In heirloom troff interword space may be shrinked
                                \" this command define the minimum interword 
space
.   letadj 99 99 15 101 101     \" adjust letter space and width
.                                                       \" 1: shorten 
inter-letter space in %
.                                                       \" 2: shorten letter 
width in %
.                                                       \" 3: size from which a 
word may be expanded
.                                                       \" 4: larger 
inter-letter space in %
.                                                       \" 5: larger letter 
width in %
.                               \" hanging characters at the end of a line.
.                               \" to get a better visual alignment.
.                               \" 1: font, 2: glyph, 3: hanging width
.   rhang R - 100 \(hy 100 \(en 100 \(em 100 » 150
.   rhang I - 100 \(hy 100 \(en 100 \(em 100 » 150
.   rhang B - 100 \(hy 100 \(en 100 \(em 100 » 150
.                               \" One can also use .lhang for the begining of 
a line.
..
.de min
.   \" minimize paragraphs
.       \" Have to manually insert .min after .PP
.       \" Deal with .ss, .minss, and .letadj
.   padj
.   ss 10 0
.   minss 9
.   letadj 98 98 15 101 101
..
.de max
.   \" maximize paragraphs
.   padj
.   ss 12 0
.   minss 11
.   letadj 100 100 15 102 102
..


As we're talking about that, could we find some way to get
someone working on an implementation of these ideas in groff, via
a google summer of code, a call to donation, or something else?
Would you be interested to work on that Werner? Is there a way to
help?

Last but not least, all this is not only a matter of taste, it's
based on optic laws, and is a way of dealing with optic
illusions. People who are making fonts are also dealing with
optic illusions: to get a perfect visual alignment of glyphs, some must
be higher than others.

Cheers,

Pierre-Jean.