Hi guys, Ok, I certainly did _not_ intend to start a flame war, was just dreaming out loud:-))

===== Original Message From Paul Tremblay =====

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I think you can achieve the same thing with a well-written shell script, which can be interactive and can test all sorts of variables. Wouldn't a shell script do the job you want? I mean, imagine the best, most fancy gui you can, one that does everything you want with fonts. Now just imagine the same program in an ugly shell that would do the same thing, with the same interaction, and wouldn't that do the trick?

Something one could run from e.g. a WinEDT or SciTe gui shell would be fine (for now->)

===== Original Message From "Thomas A.Schmitz" =====

First: fonts are a complex business, and when you venture outside of the normal Western character range, things start to get really messy (I speak from experience

I have even more difficult issues with Arabic;-)

To be honest: in my personal opinion (and this is a very personal opinion), die-hard GUI users who just loathe the command line should not be using TeX.

Hmm, seems we've heard the same comment about Linux in the pre-KDE days:-) Seriously, there is room in the TeX world for a creative gui approach, and ConTeXt would be a much better candidate than LaTeX for that to work. Yes, this is just a dream for now... In the future, maybe many years from now, someone may design a well-thought-out gui interface for the ConTeXt of the future. I for one would buy it...

In a way, the current state puts a gentle, but firm sign on font handling saying "This might be a bit difficult. Be warned!"

Firm, perhaps, but I don't know about "gentle":-)) But Paul's idea of an interactive shell script is practical and I'll shut up for awhile... Best Idris ============================ Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523