[biblitfonts] Re: Draft glyph set 0.82

At 14:58 11/11/2002, Kent Richards wrote:

>I have had my question answered about replies within the email.  I saw it
>and it is not helpful given that it is not easily distinguished.  I will not
>do it again!  Here are my comments snipped from my mixing the responses.

You should be able to use typical quoting techniques for e-mail, as 
supported by your e-mail software, as I have here. Note to all: avoid using 
HTML formatted e-mail, as I have set the listserve options to only send 
plain text since this is more efficient. We can review this decision, if 
the majority would like to use and receive HTML formatting.

>1. This request leads me to think that we need to divide some
>responsibilities.
>a) We are a little heavier on the side of Hebrew content folks (or I think
>we may be) than Greek content folks.  I think we need to have one of the
>group more responsible for each of the glyph sets.  Who shall they be?

I know some people who are strong on Greek. David Perry comes immediately 
to mind (it was he who mentioned that the fraktur H is used in 
Nestle-Aland. I would be happy to have David to contribute to discussion as 
an 'invited expert'.

>b) I am working on filling out the list so that we do not have to bring others
>up to speed.  Since this time of year is horrendous for me given our Annual
>Meeting in Toronto, I am finding it difficult to get that done.  I do not
>want to slow John up, but I want to make sure we have a full compliment of
>folks.  Any suggestions, John?

Keep in mind that we will be dealing with Hebrew first, then Greek and then 
Latin and generic material (including apparatus glyphs), as indicated in 
Appendix B of the contract. So I'm comfortable proceeding with an imbalance 
of Hebrew experts at this stage. In addition, I know a lot more about Greek 
than I know about Hebrew, so will require less assistance. I do have some 
ideas abut Greek input that are tangential to the design, and it would be 
good to discuss these in February, when we start dealing with the Greek in 
earnest.

>2. John, you are being very diligent and I greatly appreciate it.  I
>understand
>what the contract said, BUT most importantly we need what we need.  We must
>have a glyph set that permits us to do all that is done in the finest
>critical editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts.

Understood. I just wanted to alert you that, while I expected a certain 
amount of flexibility in the glyph set, if it gets too much larger we might 
need to revise some of the costs and schedules. At the moment, I think we 
can proceed with the existing plan as outlined in the contract.

>a) Now a question, is it possible to "phase" what
>we are doing?  While I am concerned about costs, the most important element
>for me is getting what is needed.

The work is already broadly phased into Hebrew, Greek and Latin phases. In 
the first column of the spreadsheet, I have indicated to which phase each 
glyph belongs.

>b) Would it be better to have a two day
>working session to get the full set as we understand it at this point?  I
>had hoped we would be able to do this via the electronic means.  I would
>suggest meeting in Toronto, but frankly  that is too late for most of us.  I
>guess I need John's advice.

I think the glyph set we have defined is pretty good, and I can't imagine 
that there is a whole lot missing. Areas of concern would be

      apparatus critici glyphs from important volumes we have not examined yet
           (a list of such volumes should be compiled)
      unusual/non-standard glyph variants
           (e.g. the inverted nun at the end of Num 10:34 and 10:36 in BHS)
      non-standard letter-diacritic combinations
           (but these are probably best handled via mark positioning,
            rather than substitution of precomposed glyphs)

Since we have just now set up a discussion list, I think it would be 
worthwhile to a) invite more members (either project partners or expert 
contributors) and b) set tasks for identifying glyphs additional glyphs in 
these areas of concern. I believe it should be possible to manage this via 
electronic means.

Regards, John

Tiro Typeworks          www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC           tiro@xxxxxxxx

It is necessary that by all means and cunning,
the cursed owners of books should be persuaded
to make them available to us, either by argument
or by force.      - Michael Apostolis, 1467

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