Even if they use FreeType to display the document on-screen and
embedding the
TrueType as a Type 42 PS font, there's still the problem of gs knowing
what
Type 42 is. Current versions of gs (> 4.10, I think) understand
TrueType, but
most Linux distributions still come with gs 3.33 (Debian 2.0 does)!
(I'll get
to my point eventually)
Basically, look at what StarOffice and WordPerfect do wrt fonts - they
both
come with their own fonts (even duplicating whats already available to
X11 and
GhostScript) to make sure everything works right.
The best thing to do for TrueType fonts would be to use an import
mechanism
(totally ignoring the X11 font server) to convert them to PS (or simply
embed
them as Type 42) for printing - AbiWord could display them itself using
the
LPGLed (GPLed?) FreeType library. The documentation for AbiWord would
mention
that if the user wants to use TrueType fonts, they'll have to upgrade
GhostScript
to do so (or something to that effect).
>
> You also have to take into account of the idiot factor. As I said
> before many of the students are born-and-bred windows users. They tend to
> panic when they cant find c: and they sure as hell don't know how to mount a
> floppy.
Some of that could be handled with something like the automount daemon.
>
> I think an interface should by default be usable by the laymen, with
> the extra options found under advanced menus, extra toolbars or a
> configuration module.
What sort of configuration module are you talking about? Something like
Linuxconf? Or what StarOffice (and WordPerfect...) has for printer
definition?
> The help system should also be easy to use for the
> user and administrator; more and more IT departments are switching from NT$
> to linux but are inhibited by the lack of readily documented specific help.
> I also think that the help system should use the gnome help browser.
Or the KDE help browser - I think it would be hard to require everyone
who
wants to use AbiWord to also install GNOME, especially if they already
have
KDE (or neither) installed and dont want to switch (or install GNOME,
whichever
the case may be)
>
> Some other features not found anywhere.
> I am also a student here at Wesley and I have has to write many
> research papers. The toughest part about writing a research paper is
> documenting sources (anybody else who has written one knows the anguish of
> documenting sources). Many hours have I spent searching and searching
> through countless English books looking for the correct way to reference a
> source. It would be wonderful if word processors had a citation/bibliography
> wizard/builder that covered MLA and APA formats. Another thing that would be
> nice is an actual dictionary, not a list of English words but an actual
> dictionary. Of course a thesaurus and search commands are needed.
Being a student, I think that would be totally cool! I think it would
be
better off being a "macro" written in JavaScript, though, rather than be
part of the executable (AbiWord _is_ still going to use JavaScript,
isn't
it?) Being a macro would make it easier to update, too.
-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Phil Brutsche"Be of stout heart, Number One. We've handled the Borg. We can certainly handle Admiral Jellico." - Jean-Luc Picard
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