[B-Greek] RE: Comparing Unicode fonts

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Wed Feb 9 16:50:34 EST 2005



Egrapsen Wieland
>I think it is a good tool, but the time for Unicode has not yet come.
>Nobody knows how to type Unicode Greek 

Actually the time came long ago for this very reason. For twenty years
I refused to use "bible software" that forced the user to use a
non-national keyboard. It was especially painful in Hebrew. Now, with
unicode, someone can send me a text that I can read and I do not need
to know what kind of "square wheel" they used to encode it. It prints
out, copies and pastes, and CAN BE EDITED in a national keyboard. 


>I personally see only one real advantage of Unicode. The real
>advantage of Unicode is that every combination of accent and letter
>is individually designed. This makes the appearance of the script
>more perfect. Everybody working in the field has the (about ten)
>fonts, needed to display the Greek correctly.

But each of those "fonts" in the field FORCE the user to use their
keyboard arrangement, and one cannot paste and edit within documents
in the language. Each font has its own keyboard and they are not
usually in the national keyboard.

To quote Dylan, 
"... don't send me no letters, no, not unless you mail them [delete:
"from desolation row"] (add: in unicode)

You don't know how many gibberish inserts and attachments I have
received in the last twenty years, all well meaning, but with font
placements that were unredeemable in Hebrew and full of problems in
Greek. 

So be greatful for unicode.
 
ERRWSQE
Randall Buth


 
Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel
Hebrew University, Rothberg International School
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il






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