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Re: Linux font & printer problems (Re: executor-digest V1 #350)
>>>>> "Michele" == Michele Marziani <marziani@vaxfe.fe.infn.it> writes:
Michele> 1) I have several documents which were created with my
Michele> Mac IIsi and Word 5.1. When opened with Word under
Michele> Executor they are shown OK onscreen but the drop-down
Michele> font list doesn't show, e.g., the default New York
Michele> font. It seems this and several other very common Mac
Michele> fonts are not part of Executor.
The stock System file should have in it:
Chicago
Courier
Geneva
Helvetica
Monaco
New York
Symbol
Times
In addition, the "Fonts and DAs" folder should contain
Avant Garde
Bookman
N Helveitca Narrow
New Century
Palatino
Zapf Chancery
Zapf Dingbats
Michele> 2) I've got Font D/A Mover 4.1 and tried to install a new
Michele> font folder consisting of New York fonts. Now, Word
Michele> correctly displays New York in the dropdown fontlist or
Michele> when clicking in the middle of a New York paragraph. It
Michele> even seems to sense bold attributes and the like.
Using Font D/A Mover shouldn't be necessary. The stock fonts should
already be there, the other ones should install by just dragging them
to the hot-band. Right now I think there are bugs that allow you to
put a font in the hot-band twice and there also may be trouble
removing fonts from the hot-band, but if you just drag each one in
once, it should work.
Michele> The question is: how to print? I have an Apple LW Pro
Michele> 630 connected to my PC and it should have the New York
Michele> font built in. However it seems I'm only able to print
Michele> garbage, i.e. missplaced Courier characters. I've set up
Michele> a printer filter file (executor_filter) which only
Michele> includes the following
Michele> #!/bin/sh lpr -Plw
Michele> where 'lw' is my printer queue pointing to the LW
Michele> 630. There is NO printer filter associated with the queue
Michele> 'lw'. It simply sends the PS output to the printer,
Michele> directly. It's my preferred printer queue and normally it
Michele> prints PS flawlessly.
There is probably a mismatch in the font names. PostScript uses an
ad-hoc naming convention which means that since we don't have an Apple
Printer, we may easily have made a mistake. If you can find out the
canonical names of the fonts in their various faces and send them to
me, I'll try to get the fix into the next version of Executor.
Michele> 3) How to modify the paper size? Normally a Word 5.1 Page
Michele> Setup menu item allows this (in the File menu). However,
Michele> the fake Executor dialog box only allows a limited number
Michele> of options and it seems there is no means of changing the
Michele> paper size.
Michele> Again, the printed output comes out visibly missplaced
Michele> on the sheet. I'm not surprised at all since a captured
Michele> PS output clearly showed a %%DocumentPaperSizes: Letter
Michele> in its header.
Currently, you're stuck with Letter paper. Under NEXTSTEP Executor
can communicate with the printing subsystem and you can use the
NEXTSTEP printing panels. There are no equivalent ones under Linux,
so we'll have to create them. This takes time. I realize that 8.5" x
11" is not the common paper size in europe, but support for alternate
paper sizes is an example of Feature N+1.
Michele> My feeling is that Word and maybe other important
Michele> productivity packages are really unusable under Executor,
Michele> at least until these IMHO serious bugs (?) are
Michele> fixed. Until then I'm unable to even consider registering
Michele> (...pardon me, getting a license key for)
Michele> Executor. Furthermore, it seems quite pricey given the
Michele> current functional level.
We realize that no matter what feature set we provide, there will be
some who really will not be able to use Executor until Feature N+1 is
added. That does not bother us, as long as those people don't use
Executor (other than in demo mode) in the meantime. However, holding
back Executor from licensing until Feature N+1 is included deprives
people of the chance to register it now, something that many people
clearly want to do.
As for Executor's price, everyone is entitled to an opinion. I am
sure there are some people who would not use Executor even if *we*
paid *them*. Luckily, they aren't our target audience. Enough people
think that the US$49 fee for students, faculty and staff of
educational institutions is a bargain, that we have no plans to lower
that fee. If Executor is not worth that fee, don't license it. As
long as you're not using it (other than in demo mode) we're both happy
-- you won't be paying for something you don't use and Executor won't
be used by someone who's not paying.
I am not trying to single you out and suggest that you'd use Executor
in non-demo mode without licensing it, but there are they who
rationalize (even on this list) that if software is too expensive,
then it's appropriate to crack it (which is trivial to do with
Executor -- anti-cracking schemes punish the honest customers, so we
don't use them) or pirate it and use it anyway.
Michele> I hope someone is able to shed light on the above
Michele> technical aspects. Take care.
Michele> -- Michele Marziani Universita' di Ferrara e-mail (work)
Michele> marziani@vaxfe.fe.infn.it Dipartimento di Fisica (home)
Michele> marziani@estense.global.it 44100 Ferrara - ITALY * * *
Michele> voice/fax +39-532-63631
--Cliff
ctm@ardi.com
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