Re: Standard font

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Look, I'm as bad as anybody and worse than lots when it comes to
going OT, but this _is_ supposed to be a Xy discussion list.
Doesn't _anybody_ know how the FA and FP tables of a printer file
work? And why I'm getting Zapf Chancery whenever I forget to
specify a font?
The FA table in PostGhst.prn I think I understand: it lists the
screen fonts Xy supports and equates them to the various printer
fonts in the .prn file (that is, those that have a double-headed
arrow next to them when one goes into the font-selection menu
with that .prn loaded). EXCEPT:
1. It lists a whole lot of numbered fonts that aren't mentioned,
as far as I can see, anywhere else
(1,66,154,240,260,201,211,250,280,290). Those are, apparently,
according to the Customization Guide, the names of fonts in IBM's
DCA architecture (do we still need them?)
2. Standard itself is nowhere else mentioned. What gives? Is
"standard" something deep in the innards of Xy or what?

As for the FP table, that is really puzzling: first it says
DUTCH=ANTIQUA,...TIMES,... (which makes perfect sense, because
DUTCH doesn't have a double-headed arrow in the menu of
PostGhst.prn)
Then
TIMES=DUTCH
A circular reference if ever I saw one.

Can anyone explain this?


--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx

Patricia M. Godfrey wrote:
> The U2 instruction file includes this admonition:
>
> PRiNter Files
> Ensure that fontname STANDARD is associated in your PRiNter file(s)
> (*.PRN) with a monospace display and printer font (e.g. COURIER10), in
> both the FA: and FP: tables (SEarch for "FA:N" and "FP:N"). The lines
> should say something like this:
>
> FA:3
> COURIER10=COURIER,1,66,154,201,211,240,250,260,280,290,LINEPRINTER,STANDARD
> ...
> FP:3
> COURIER10=STANDARD,1,66,154,201,211,240,250,260,280,290
> ...
> At home I invariably print using TYP, Postghst.prn, Ghostscript, and
> GSView. Postghst.prn is, to the best of my knowledge, pristine and
> unaltered, and its FA and FP stanzas read as follows:
>
> FA:3
> COURIER10=COURIER,1,66,154,240,260,201,211,250,280,290,STANDARD
> DUTCH=ANTIQUA,BOOKMAN,CHARTER,GROTESK,NEWCENTURYSCHLBK,PALATINO,TIMES,UTOPIA,ZAPFCHANCERY,5431,5451,5559,5579
>
> SWISS=AVANTGARDE,HELVETICA,HELVETICA-NARROW,34103,34123,34231,34251
> ;
> ;PRINTER FONT ASSOCIATION TABLE:
> FP:6
> COURIER10=COURIER,STANDARD,1,66,154,201,211,240,250,260,280,290
> DUTCH=ANTIQUA,BOOKMAN,CHARTER,GROTESK,NEWCENTURYSCHLBK,PALATINO,TIMES,UTOPIA,ZAPFCHANCERY,5431,5451,5559,5579
>
> SWISS=AVANTGARDE,HELVETICA,HELVETICA-NARROW,34103,34123,34231,34251
> COURIER=COURIER10,1,66,154,201,211,240,250,260,280,290
> TIMES=DUTCH
> HELVETICA=SWISS
>
> In settings.dfl, I have the following default set:
>
> df uf=standard
> Yet inevitably if I forget (as I too often do) to specify a font at the
> beginning of a file before printing it, it comes out in Zapf Chancery. A
> lovely font for a Christmas card, but not something I want to read 5
> pages of technical discussion in.
>
> What am I doing that's throwing a spanner in the works?