On Apr 3, 2005, at 6:15 PM, Idris Samawi Hamid wrote:
As Ciro suggested, what what would be useful is a gui that completely automates the process and that asks all relevant questions and generates everything ConTeXt needs to install and run Latin fonts, including expert fonts like Minion.**** (Maybe oneday the gui can be extended for Chinese, Arabic, etc.)
Idris, I disagree strongly. First: fonts are a complex business, and when you venture outside of the normal Western character range, things start to get really messy (I speak from experience, having just completed work on Greek Extended). I'm not saying a GUI will never be able to cope with all this complicated stuff. But I do think that an extraordinary amount of work would be needed to catch all the exceptions, ifs and buts that would be involved. And I do think that this work could better be spent on other, much more important business. To be honest: in my personal opinion (and this is a very personal opinion), die-hard GUI users who just loathe the command line should not be using TeX. I also think that despite all the efforts that ConTeXt makes, it would be rash to make inexperienced users believe that handling fonts in TeX is a simple matter of pointing and clicking. The frustration would be huge when things do not work out as expected - and they will. In a way, the current state puts a gentle, but firm sign on font handling saying "This might be a bit difficult. Be warned!" And I don't think this is a bad thing. No offense, but that's what I think about this issue. Best Thomas