4.0726 Greek Word Processing (2/59)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 20 Nov 90 22:17:08 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0726. Tuesday, 20 Nov 1990.
(1) Date: 14 Nov 90 14:16:46 gmt (11 lines)
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Greek on word processors
(2) Date: 14 Nov 90 14:09:06 gmt (48 lines)
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Greek word processing
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 14 Nov 90 14:16:46 gmt
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Greek on word processors
P.P.S. Even better if the add-on for Greek can be programme independent,
i.e. continue to feed good Greek characters to screen and printer
no matter which programme you are using. This is very important if
you wish to sort a file with Greek in it, transfer its data to a stats
programme, use a powerful editor on it instead of the word processor
or use a teaching programme and print out hard copy. Not unreasonable
objectives for academics, but just try getting this effectively !
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------63----
Date: 14 Nov 90 14:09:06 gmt
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Greek word processing
There has been a lot of discussion of how to include Greek
(for me that must mean a FULL literary Greek character set
diacritics and all) in general commercial word processors
such as word perfect. I myself use a British (Manchester)
system called Vuwriter Arts which gives me very clear Greek both
on the screen of my ega portable and from 24 pin or laser printers,
the former at home the latter in the Faculty.
This system is cheaper than Nota Bene, but has much less elaborate
options esp with regard to footnotes.
Anyone seriously wanting Greek needs to check i.e. see on screen and
on hard copy a FULL Greek character set which would be acceptable at
least to thesis presentation standards. Some of the solutions
that are offered fall well short of this. Many solutions are offered
by people who have never used them or even seen them work. This
is worse than useless. Some can only get mathematical Greek, some
only Greek on screen not from a printer - the latter needs a lot of
printer driver files for different printers. In summer 1990
I received a copy of _Computing and the Classics_ which printed
three samples of add on fonts from different printers. All three
were inferior in type face to the Vuwriter fonts I have used for several
years. I would not consider any of those suitable for thesis
presentation. I am not saying that VW is perfect - as I say
its footnoting is adequate for me but not ideal. What would
be very helpful would be to hear from someone who reckons they can
get the best of both worlds, or the best of the practically
possible worlds. I would also like to hear more of how
someone switches between two different add-on fonts for
word perfect to get handy Greek on the screen PLUS good quality
printout.
If someone can get really good Greek printout from Word Perfect
to thesis presentation standards I suggest they send some hard
copy to the editors of Computing and the Classics (and to me please).
David Mealand, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
P.S. Multi-Lingual Scholar does excellent Hebrew, Greek and
many other alphabets for colleagues here. I would only use it
for something that needed lots of Hebrew though. Also my colleagues
have got good copy from MLS out of a 24 pin Epson LQ, but simply
can't get it out of an NEC laser printer.