Re: FT2 design question

[Werner LEMBERG]

> >> I think (but I'm not 100% sure) that this notion of "correct"
> >> ligature replacement only exists in german. I quite positive that in
> >> english it's quite alright to set 's' 'h' 'e' 'l' 'ff' 'u' 'l'.
> >
> >Ha, this is the very example Don Knuth gives in his TeXbook for not
> >using a ligature :-)
> 
> It appears to say quite the opposite in an idirect way... (Although
> the "shelfful" example is better.) Do you have an exact quote? Would
> be the first time I hear someone outside of Germany claim this is
> "correct".

The TeXbook, p.19, Exercise 5.1.

> We'll have to agree to disagree... I think it's backwards. Ligatures
> were invented to improve shapes that would otherwise collide (the
> "flag" of the f against the dot of the i), I fail to see why this
> "improvement" should be turned off at syllable boundaries.

Look into german.sty -- the command to suppress a ligature inserts a
bit white space to improve appearance: `Auf"|lage'.  IMHO, it is an
improvement.

> >Well, the new German writing rules make it `ba-cken' instead of
> >`bak-ken', and I agree that hyphenation after the syllable makes
> >sense.  But bac-ken is *never* possible...
> 
> I don't know about bac-ken, but c-k *used* to be possible... Glad it
> isn't anymore, though.

Where have you seen this?  It is definitely bad style.  Can you give
an example?


    Werner