[B-Greek] OT e-Mail Fonts

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Thu Jun 9 08:11:43 EDT 2005


In response to these latest queries, I append below an edited version  
of my off-line response to Will Wagers'
original post on this matter.

On Jun 8, 2005, at 11:03 PM, Bob Firth wrote:

> Hi Will,
>
> hyle at e-denton.com wrote:
>
>
>> This transliteration thing is a real pain: it's archaic in  
>> computer terms.
>> Has anyone ever discussed setting up a parallel mailing list using  
>> a Greek
>> font instead of transliteration? I am thinking "B-Greek2" could be  
>> used as a
>> test bed to iron out all the bugs with an eye to a switchover at a  
>> future
>> date. It would allow people to move over at their leisure, it  
>> would allow
>> reluctant users to get help in moving over, and at some point  
>> everyone would
>> be there.
>>
>>
> I'm not sure how having 2 mailing lists would work. I think it  
> would be a good idea to trial/test things on another mailing list  
> before it changes over, but we should keep all the genuine posts on  
> one list I think.
>
>
>> Also, software could be written to automatically generate a  
>> transliterated
>> version for those who prefer(?) to remain on the transliterated B- 
>> Greek.
>>
>>
> Some email programs (e.g. Eudora) seem to have decided not to  
> support unicode! Other people just have old software, so a  
> transliteration version would be important, but not because people  
> like reading transliteration in particular (though I think some  
> people who have been around this list for a while do seem very  
> comfortable with it).
>
> I can't see why, if this got working smoothly on a test list it  
> couldn't just be implemented straight away on b-greek, and then  
> there would be a subscription option to switch to unicode greek if  
> you prefer... that way no one would notice anything different  
> unless they changed their option.
>
>
>> Has there ever been an official survey to determine who could or  
>> could not
>> move over easily, and what their problems might be?
>>
>>
> Yeah, there was a discussion, including a series of tests, I'm not  
> sure how official (http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2005- 
> April/033910.html)
>
> I don't know who is actually in charge of these things, or if they  
> have any interest in switching to unicode, perhaps something is  
> already being worked on.

We had this discussion a couple months ago (April) about switching  
over to
Unicode.  What we discovered in that go-round is that plain-text  
UTF-8 characters WILL come through
clearly both in the BG archives and in e-mail of users with programs  
that recognize it. I think there's a
strong probability that we WILL go there, although it's our list- 
owner, Jonathan Robie, who must decide
just how soon it may be. In preparation for that I have myself  
abandoned Eudora with great reluctance
and started using Apple's Mail.app because Mail.app WILL read UTF-8  
Unicode Greek and Eudora still
hasn't gotten to that point.

For now, the following should be born in mind by those concerned  
about the transition):

1. Since it is the only device that works for all systems that can  
read Unicode, so long as they have at
least one Unicode font with Greek glyphs in it installed in their  
systems, Unicode Greek is the only way
we can screen Greek text in BG mail.

2. Personally I don't see that typing Unicode Greek is really any  
easier than using the conventional
BG transliteration scheme: you have to press the appropriate key to  
get the right Greek character, and
even if you don't use breathings and accents (althought we do try to  
indicate a rough breathing
with "h"), you have to know the keyboard for typing the Unicode Greek  
characters. I honestly don't
think that's a great deal easier than learning to use the  
transliteration scheme.

2. Our server software (Mailman) will not send HTML on in  
distribution of list-messages; consequently
plain-text ASCII is called for -- although, as we now know, that CAN  
be plain-text UTF-8 Unicode.

3. Zack Hubert has made available the expedient that I called  
attention to yesterday: go to his
browser site (http://zhubert.com/) which allows the user to find any  
Greek text in the GNT or LXX
and easily click to get a BG standard transliteration of the passage  
in question that CAN be copied
and pasted into an e-mail.

So, that's where things currently stand on this question.


Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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