Re: macos.texi updated

[YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu <mituharu@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp>]

>>>>> On 25 Sep 2005 10:20:31 -0400, Adrian Robert <arobert@cogsci.ucsd.edu> said:

> Even in X11, while XLFD is needed at the lowest level to interact
> with the windowing system, is it really necessary to expose the user
> to it?  In the old days when emacs-X11 was first developed, X11
> users were used to specifying fonts in ...-*-*-*-*-... fashion.
> Nowadays, most apps shield them from this.  Thus, maybe it's
> reasonable to develop a new emacs font specification style that's
> simpler, and use this even in the face code until the lowest level
> where interaction w/the window system takes place?

I'm not against the introduction of a new font specification style,
but I think it is mainly for developers and power-users.  Emacs
already has a mechanism that enables users to specify fonts in a
simpler way at the face level.

  (set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "courier" :height 130)

And there is also an interactive one, i.e., M-x customize-face.

> Standard emacs faces would use just "bold" and "italic" as
> attributes, but users could use others specific to their systems,
> which the window system code would recognize.  Unrecognized
> attributes are ignored or warned about.

There are :width, :weight, and :slant attributes.  Currently they must
be selected from a fixed set, but not just "bold" and "italic" (9
levels for :width and :weight, and 5 variations for :slant).

> Finally, a mechanism for ensuring some font family names are
> cross-platform would be needed.  One approach here would be the
> time-honored "map standard postscript names to system-specific
> ones": each system would have a list of its equivalent families for
> "courier", "times", and so on.  Another approach would be the web
> method of using generic names like 'sans', 'serif', and 'fixed' in
> all emacs standard faces.

I think the variable `face-font-family-alternatives' would help to
provide such facility.  Currently, "courier" and "helv" are defined by
default.

				     YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu
				mituharu@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp