From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Fri Dec 05 2003 - 10:36:01 EST
On 05/12/2003 05:23, Michael Everson wrote:
> ...
> Sigh.
>
> I think I make nice outlines. People seem to like them. I don't find
> the new font tools to be very friendly, however. There are still many
> cross-platform problems, if you want to support older as well as newer
> systems. Then there's the horror of OT vs AAT and all sorts of
> scripting and command-line tools that must be great if you're a
> programmer. Perhaps you will forgive me for not investing my abundant
> spare time in dealing with such a high learning curve. I already have
> enough to do typesetting to pay the rent (fonts don't, especially if
> you give them away) in order to fund the time I need to spend on
> script proposals and standardization travel. Never mind a mortgage,
> given the housing market in the country I live in.
>
> In an ideal situation, I'd be working on Unicode full-time for the
> next eight years doing nothing but script proposals. The world doesn't
> seem to be able to offer me such employment, because as I've said, you
> can't sell alphabets to anyone. Do you think we enjoy holding out the
> begging bowl? We do it because we feel we must. Yet you've been
> saying: "Give us more for free." I'm sorry you can't feel more
> supportive. We need support. Unicode needs support. The unencoded
> scripts need support.
Michael, I'm sorry to sound negative. I understand the situation you are
in of having inadequate income - I am in the same situation. I wish you
well, I really do. Just don't forget that you are not the only script
expert and not the only deserving cause in the world.
So let me make it clear: I urge everyone who is able, and concerned
about its goals, to dig deep and support the SEI (though not to the
exclusion of other giving). Details from
http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~dwanders/ - that is correct, isn't
it? At first sight it looks as if these details restrict donations to US
dollar checks, but it seems that credit card donations, presumably from
anywhere in the world, can be made via
https://colt.berkeley.edu/urelgift/ls_linguistics.html.
I would also hope that it might be possible to find support for such
work, at least for the minority scripts in current use, from
international development agencies as well as from individuals, but no
doubt the SEI has already looked at that route.
As for your fonts, perhaps you should get together with some partner who
is able to do the necessary programming and market them jointly. Or you
could even ask if there is anyone able to volunteer to write some of
these tables for you as their contribution to SEI.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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