[Biblical-languages] Testing, testing, testing
Alexander Hopkins
alexali at surf.net.au
Tue Apr 29 22:35:30 EDT 2003
I add my name to those who have already expressed appreciation of the
return of Biblical languages.
Trudey asked,
>I have some things I want to ask those 'in the know' about which
operating system is best for typing in both Greek and Hebrew.
I'm interested in the question, because my own was so similar back in
December: 'I am about to upgrade my computer. Of the current flavours
of Windows, is one preferable to others for working in Greek, and, if
so, why?'
My knowledge is not the technical expertise that others bring to the
list, but I'll just mention that from my own experience since upgrading
in January, I've found Windows XP Pro preferable to the Home edition. I
have the former on my desktop computer, the latter on a laptop. I have
found just a couple of niggles with the Home edition, the root cause of
which I do not have the knowledge to determine. I keep my notes on
Greek in rtf files, using a program written in Visual Basic. I have
found that on the XP home edition laptop these files do not always
display correctly when first opened, and that some characters do not
display correctly in menus. These little glitches may be to do with
programming issues I've not yet delved, but my suspicion is that the
differences in the editions of XP is a factor. (Any list member
recognising these as simple issues easily fixed, please let me know!)
XP Pro is a little more expensive, but I think it may be worth it with a
view to the future.
As regards the fonts, it might be worth noting that a font like Gentium,
while excellent, may not meet all purposes as it does not have glyphs,
for example, for all the archaic Greek letters or Coptic; Cardo, e.g.,
already mentioned in this thread, offers a greater range of glyphs. But
my own experience in migrating from Windows 95 to XP and using the
Unicode fonts has certainly been worth it.
Alex Hopkins
(Melbourne, Australia - where it has indeed generally been sunny and
warm, but most of our countryside would currently prefer cool, cloudy,
and damp.)
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