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 :-)

> And in my humble typographic opinion it should be ok to do
> unconditional ligature replacement in any (latin) language: I don't
> see the point in changing appearance rules based on spelling.

I don't agree.  It increases readability in German -- since we use
sooo long words, even subtle details are helpful.

> It's a strange old tradition that we might as well do away with,
> just like almost nobody in germany seems to replace 'ck' with 'kk'
> anymore when a hyphenation occurs between the c and the k.

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...


    Werner