APL Character Set and Browsers

APL Character Set and Browsers
Downloaded APL Font

This method requires the web page writer to mark up APL characters with the HTML text as follows:

<font face="APL Font Name"> &#nnn; &#nnn; </font>

where the APL font name refers to an APL font installed on the workstation, and "&#nnn; refers to the APL characters referenced by their corresponding positions within the font.

It also requires the user to download this font to their workstation.

If you are using a system other than Windows, this method does not apply.

Details

For Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, a common implementation of this technique is to download and install the "Dyalog STD TT" True Type font. (Note that other fonts have been made available for this purpose as well. See References, below.)

In the following examples keep in mind that this page uses this technique to display APL characters.

If the font is NOT installed on your computer, your browser will use the default font to display APL characters:

Example 1. Dyalog APL character codes displayed in your default font
œµÐ¾†‡…“”ŒŽÞ¼‹ƒ‚²´Šš’³¹‰ˆ•–÷°±Ÿ½©¯

(If the font IS installed on your computer, the default font will still be used because the HTML generating the above line did not specify the "Dyalog STD TT" font.)

To install the font, you can download the font from the Dyadic Systems web site, and install following the "font installation procedure" for your Windows operating system.

Note: You don't need the Dyalog APL interpreter; just the font.

Once the font has been installed, your browser should display Example 2 (following) of this web page using the APL graphics (displayed in the same sequence as Example 1.

Example 2. Dyalog APL character codes specified in the DYALOG STD TT font
œµÐ¾†‡…“”ŒŽÞ¼‹ƒ‚²´Šš’³¹‰ˆ•–÷°±Ÿ½©¯

Technical note: If your browser is Netscape, it has been reported that some characters may not be displayed incorrectly, e.g. the characters for quote-quad and quad-divide. This is a bug in the Netscape browser, possibly related to the undefined characters at those locations of the default Windows font (cf. "character map" application). IE5 may also display these characters incorrectly. FrontPage Express Version 2.0.2.118 displays and prints these characters correctly.
 (quad) Œ
 (quote-quad)
 (quad-divide) Ž

Notes

When this method works, it works well, but several disadvantages have been noted.

Doesn't work for workstations such as the Macintosh (c) or SUN (c)

Not a "vanilla" solution, that is, it requires a specific download, which may dissuade a casual reader of the web site

Not everyone will be comfortable using an APL font from a particular vendor or interpreter.

One user reports -

My (recent) experience of writing a short paper on an interesting APL problem is that I could not get a single font to display correctly in both major browsers (NS 4.76 and IE 5.5). Eventually, I used some JavaScript to detect which browser was active and used "DYALOG STD TT" for Netscape and "APLPLUS" for Internet Explorer. I could have used "APLHELP" instead of "DYALOG STD TT", but it isn't available for download if you haven't bought APL+Win. Even then, I have seen instances of the same browser (NS 4.76) displaying a particular APL character (matrix-divide) from the same font ("DYALOG STD TT") correctly on one system and incorrectly on another.

A follow-up comment from another user -

It appears that fonts do not always install correctly; the circumstances are not known to me. The solution is to open the Fonts folder (in Control Panel) and close it. Simply that! Try this next time. I regularly use this solution with Dyalog APL fonts.

References

[ Vector ]

Download various APL fonts and find more information on this technique from the Vector web site.

[ Dyalog Limited ]

Source of "Dyalog STD TT" font

[ ACM SIGAPL ]

See the article on APL True Type fonts

[ Causeway Graphical Systems ]

Source of font