From m@ech|er @end|ng |rom @t@t@m@th@ethz@ch  Wed Sep 20 12:39:50 2023
From: m@ech|er @end|ng |rom @t@t@m@th@ethz@ch (Martin Maechler)
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2023 12:39:50 +0200
Subject: [Rd] proposal: 'dev.capabilities()' can also query Unicode
 capabilities of current graphics device
In-Reply-To: <CAMigB8EaoRNacP0Z4QUMXjegnks1jCOrx2eN5Z-EK63wtqsLmA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAMigB8EaoRNacP0Z4QUMXjegnks1jCOrx2eN5Z-EK63wtqsLmA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <25866.52214.850601.243688@stat.math.ethz.ch>

>>>>> Trevor Davis 
>>>>>     on Thu, 31 Aug 2023 13:49:03 -0700 writes:

    > Hi,

    > It would be nice if `grDevices::dev.capabilities()` could also be used to
    > query whether the current graphics device supports Unicode.  In such a case
    > I'd expect it to return `FALSE` if `pdf()` is the current graphics device
    > and something else for the Cairo or Quartz devices.

    > Thanks,
    > Trevor

I agree in principle that this would be useful new feature for
dev.capabilities()

However, pdf()   *does*  support  Unicode.

The problem is that some pdf *viewers*,
notably `evince` on Fedora Linux, for several years now,
do *not* show *some* of the UTF-8 glyphs because they do not use
the correct fonts {which *are* on the machine; good old `xpdf`
does in that case show the glyphs}.

Martin



[Rd] proposal: 'dev.capabilities()' can also query Unicode capabilities of current graphics device
Martin Maechler