From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Printing Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:37:14 +0300 Message-ID: References: <5f0660120903280331y780c80b7i57a8115dc4b029eb@mail.gmail.com> <5f0660120903281352v5d7ab83cy44fcff3cbf4581cb@mail.gmail.com> <87ljqnkvn9.fsf@jehiel.elehack.net> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1238701077 6485 80.91.229.12 (2 Apr 2009 19:37:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 19:37:57 +0000 (UTC) Cc: michael@elehack.net, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Apr 02 21:39:12 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1LpSkc-00072A-VG for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:38:59 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:38698 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LpSjF-0006ij-5W for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:37:33 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LpSjA-0006gh-Ks for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:37:28 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LpSj8-0006g6-Ar for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:37:27 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=58140 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LpSj8-0006g3-6I for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:37:26 -0400 Original-Received: from mtaout2.012.net.il ([84.95.2.4]:35252) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LpSj6-0005vU-Bl; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:37:24 -0400 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.i_mtaout2.012.net.il by i_mtaout2.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2004.12) id <0KHH00G00NPL8100@i_mtaout2.012.net.il>; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:37:20 +0300 (IDT) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([77.127.171.54]) by i_mtaout2.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2004.12) with ESMTPA id <0KHH000CYNU6YRS0@i_mtaout2.012.net.il>; Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:37:20 +0300 (IDT) In-reply-to: X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: Solaris 9.1 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:110019 Archived-At: > From: Richard M Stallman > CC: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, michael@elehack.net, emacs-devel@gnu.org > Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:02:19 -0400 > > In this area, we basically didn't move much since ps-mule was > introduced more than 10 years ago. Based on that experience, I fear > that if we stick to PostScript as the only decent printing facility in > Emacs, we will not improve our support of printing non-ASCII text for > the foreseeable future. If you think otherwise, please explain how > come we are still where we were in 1998. > > This is not the right way to choose the method for solving a problem. > How much people have worked on this in the past is beside the point. It's not beside the point: it can give us some idea how many people are likely to work on it in the future. > The real question about printing non-ASCII text is what needs to be > done to make ps-print handle more character sets, and what the > obstacles are. I suspect there are no people among active contributors to Emacs who know that. Otherwise, they would have already solved this. > Supporting application-specific APIs could be a big pain in the neck. > Each one of them could be a big pain in the neck. It could, but then again it could be much easier, too. > Would you like to collect the docs of the APIs used for finding and > specifying fonts on the various systems, so people can see what work > is really involved in supporting them? I will add this to my todo, but it's so long that there's no knowing if I ever get to doing that. Nor am I the ideal candidate, for that matter: I'm not much of an expert on these APIs, I know only a couple of them, and only very superficially.