Comment 9 for bug 632267

There is a difference between 'legacy' and 'wrong'. In many cases, once
a precedence is out it cannot be revoked on fear of non-conformity and
omissions.

Imagine the user who receives an (old) pre-proofed document. Runs the
document through an Ubuntu based app to go to print. Not until they have
had run-off 100,000 do they notice that every 'fi' or 'fl' has turned
into a notdef rectangle.

Who will they turn to for compensation...the app developer, Canonical,
DaltonMaag?

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec150/WGL4E.HTM

What problems do you anticipate down the line from including these
legacy mappings?

Malcolm Wooden

On 30/09/2010 16:42, Paul Sladen wrote:
>> It's very unlikely that you'll encounter documents which contain
> U+F001/U+F002.
>
> I agree. I think this supports the idea that we shouldn't be shippings
> these legacy mappings; they're not being used, they're wrong/broken
> anyway and carrying them means that we're carrying baggage that isn't of
> useful relevance (15 years ago, today, or tomorrow).
>
> Hopefully we can sort the canonical (small 'c') mappings out later, but
> in the meantime could we remove the aliasing of fi and fl into the PUA.
> I can only see it causing us problems down the line through sustaining
> bad habits.
>

--
Malcolm Wooden, Font Production, Dalton Maag Ltd
Unit 107, 245A Coldharbour Lane, London, SW9 8RR, UK

A new contemporary serif font family: http://www.daltonmaag.com/cordale

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