0news.txt -- changes to Malvern between releases --  -*-text-*-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELEASE 1.2 -- CHANGES SINCE MALVERN 1.1

All file names are now compatible with MS-DOS/ISO 9960

	All files have names fitting in the 8+3 straightjacket required
	by stupid MS-DOS and ISO 9960 filesystems.  I was about 12 or 13
	when I worked out for myself that trying to identify data with
	eight-capital-letter names was a dumb idea; too bad ISO didn't
	consult me.

	One side effect is that the capital-letter file names
	traditional on UNIX systems for important installation files
	(README, INSTALL, COPYING, NEWS) have been changed to
	00readme.txt, 0install.txt, 0copying.txt, 0news.txt for the sake
	of MS-DOS and VMS sufferers.

Abandoned standard font names

	As of October 1994, the font names standard does not allow more
	than two variant letters without breaking the eight-character
	limit for MS-DOS and ISO 9960 file names.  Variants includes
	encodings and things like whether the font is slanted.  As an
	extreme example, Malvern 58 with the caps-&-small-caps,
	old-style-numerals variation on the OT1 encoding is
	fmvr9ci7tc12!  My best temporary solution to this situation is
	to abandon "fmv" names altogether and extend the "ma" names to
	include the encoding schemes needed by plain TeX, plain LaTeX
	and LaTeX 2e.  Therefore, *all* Malvern fonts now have names
	starting with "ma".

Standardized encoding scheme numbers

	Now I have been forced toi come up with a set of 2-letter
	encoding codes for every encoding under the sun, I use
	encoding=19 for TeX Text instead of 0.

pdc 1994.10.11
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELEASE 1.1 -- CHANGES SINCE MALVERN 1.0.02


Better documentation

	A lot of the excess verbiage is irrelevant and has been enclosed
	in \iflong...\fi.  At the same time the sections on installation
	and such have been rewritten or expanded.  There is a separate
	installation guide (install.dvi) which uses no nonstandard
	fonts.

Support for LaTeX 2.09 and LaTeX 2e

	I have included style options that should work with LaTeX 2.09
	(either with or without NFSS), as well as LaTeX-2e FD files.
	The 2e file includes support for small capitals (but not italic
	small capitals, because NFSS 2 has no way to refer to them).
	All of these are generated by the same script that generates the
	fonts, so they should match the supplied fonts.

Macro file changed from "malvern.tex" to "maamac.tex"

	The name "maamac" is more "standard" in that it ends with "mac"
	(as many plain TeX macro files do) and starts with "maa" (as
	most Malvern-A-related files do).  It leaves open the
	possibility of a "magmac.tex" file for Malvern G, and so on.

Macro files used in documentation renamed

	The macro files I used to format plain-TeX documents have been
	renamed so that they all start with "pdc" and are valid ISO-9960
	names.

Files for fontinst

	There are ETX and MTX files included for making T1-encoded fonts
	from.

Driver files, TFM and VF files included

	A set of driver (.mf) files and TFM and VF files have been
	included, generated using "mff" and Alan Jeffrey's fontinst
	package.  These come in three main groups:

	    (1) OT1 (the encoding shown in App.F of the TeXbook) and T1
		(Cork) fonts, all with names starting in "fmv" (such as
		fmvmq12, fmvm9r12);
	    (2) Malvern-encoded fonts, used to make the T1 fonts and
		those of the OT1 fonts that include small caps, with
		names starting with "ma" (such as ma55a12); and
	    (3)	some other Malvern-encoded fonts included as examples
		(such as ma55g11).

	All of the fonts in group (1) are composite fonts (VFs), except
	for the OT1 fonts without small caps.  It follows that systems
	without the ability to use VFs will not be able to use T1 fonts.

Cyrillic letters

	The Cyrillic alphabet is still very incomplete, and some of the
	glyph designs need revision.

Composites-only font in limbo

	The previous release had a half-baked composite-letters-only
	encoding, Malvern C.  This letter has now been used for Cyrillic
	instead, and eventually Malvern E will be some sort of
	composite-letter font.  Since the Fontinst package makes
	pre-built composites largely redundant, I don't expect this font
	to be used for anything much unless I come up with new ideas on
	designing composite letters.

Encodings schemes

    Only uses Malvern encodings

	The Malvern programs no longer make any attempt to support any
	font encodings other than Malvern A, B, ... and the CMR encoding
	described in the TeXbook (now called OT1).  This is because (a)
	trying to support Cork & other encoding vectors was getting to
	be a great pain even without including support for
	caps-and-small-caps variants and (b) all this can be better done
	using Alan Jeffrey's fontinst package.

    Changes to some Malvern encodings

	Malvern B no longer includes Greek or Cyrillic letters -- these
	have their own encodings, Malvern G and C.  Malvern B contains a
	selection of symbols etc. and includes the glyphs needed to make
	Cork, Adobe and ISO-8859-1 fonts.

Replaced and mended glyph programs 

    Letters A and E with Ogonek redesigned

	The new designs for "A" and "a" have the ogonek mark drawn as a
	continuation of the last stroke of the letter.  I don't know if
	this is more "authentic" or not...

    Figures don't turn absurd then compressed or expanded.

	Curves have more intermediate points, and the ones with circular
	rings (8, 6, 9) behave more intelligently when there isn't
	enough space to use circular circles.

    Curves generally made more robust

	Many curves used to turn angular when compressed; most such
	curves now use a macro that draws them as a quarter-superelipse.

pdc 1994.07.29


------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELEASE 1.0, PATCH 02 -- CHANGES SINCE MALVERN 1.0.01

Added a new encoding G (Greek)

	Designed lower case Greek letters and composite letters, and
	made a new Malvern encoding G.  This uses similar ligature
	conventions to GreekTeX to generate fully marked up Greek text
	using ligatures like a| for alpha with iota subscript and <'h
	for eta-lenis-acute.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELEASE 1.0, PATCH 01 -- CHANGES SINCE MALVERN 1.0


Fixed the letter L

	The width was wrong.

