Re: First report on Coní

On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 09:21:46AM +0000, Peter Bleackley wrote:
> Staving Shreyas Sampat:
> >> /8/ is written |û| as of now (u + circumflex). If this vowel
> >> can be prepalatalized (like the other vowels) we have a problem.
> >> Prepalatalization is marked by diaresis: |ä| is /ja/. Irregular
> >> stress is marked by an acute accent (as in the language name:
> >> Coní). How do you combine diaresis and/or acute accent with a
> >> circumflex?
> >
> >My two pieces of jade:
> >The trema and acute can cooccur like in Greek.  The circumflex could
> >rotate down to the bottom of the glyph (so it's like a hammock rather than
> >a hat) when other diacritics take up its space.
> >
> >It's terribly difficult to computer-typeset, yes, but it would be simply
> >stunning.
Terribly difficult? Not at all...
        http://quickfur.yi.org:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/coni.pdf

> This is all adding weight to the argument that TeX/LaTeX and Metafont
> comprise the only practical system for conlanging.
And I must agree! :-)

> There are two types of computer programs - those written on the assumption
> that you know what you want to do, and those written on the assumption that
> the programmer knows what you want to do. LaTeX belongs firmly in the
> former camp.
My personal opinion is that the latter camp is fundamentally flawed,
because the programmer has no way of anticipating every possible use the
user may have for the program. Programs designed according to the latter
assumption are therefore doomed to have very small areas of application
where it may be effectively used, and very quickly fail outside of that
area.

> However, as I discovered while writing my Ph.D. thesis, "Those who've
> learned LaTeX swear by it. Those who are learning LaTeX swear at it."
[snip]

LOL... how true. But then again, people who are used to being spoonfed
will swear at anything that requires the littlest mental exertion on their
part. I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff to require some non-trivial
effort to learn something so useful.


T

--
Winners never quit, quitters never win. But those who never quit AND never
win are idiots.

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