From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8d472879e3f609e0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-06-04 18:48:26 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!wn13feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!sccrnsc01.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3EDEA144.1010907@attbi.com> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Case sensitivity (was Re: no title) References: <3EDCB918.8020905@attbi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.62.164.137 X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com X-Trace: sccrnsc01 1054777706 24.62.164.137 (Thu, 05 Jun 2003 01:48:26 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 01:48:26 GMT Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 01:48:26 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:38653 Date: 2003-06-05T01:48:26+00:00 List-Id: Randy Brukardt wrote: > My Dad had a small printing press when he was young, which I sent up in > my parents basement and used some in my teenage years. It had a number > of type fonts as well. It still exists - in my parents basement. Well if you ever want to get rid of it in exchange for a tax deduction, now you know how. > In any case (pun intended), the standard type drawer layout had the > upper case in small bins on the left, and lower case in larger bins (of > different sizes, with 'e' being the largest) on the right. (Or is it the > other way around?) But that layout may be a relatively recent invention > (early 19th century?). No, that it the right way around for triple-width cases. Lower case e was the largest bin, just to the right of the right full divider. (Type was made of a lead alloy and was heavy, so the type cases need dividers from the front to the back of the drawer so they didn't sag in the middle.) We had several type cases with around 24 double with drawers, they usually had lower case and small caps in one drawer, and lower case in another, with racks on top to support two drawers. With around a dozen different type cases we could and did pull out all of the drawers we needed for a job, put them on top of various cases, grab a compositor's stick and start setting type. I couldn't set type as fast as I can type, but even a full page of text only took a couple hours. (And if it had some mathematical formulas in it that was a nice break, when you went looking for the right Greek font, then had to remember the Greek alphabet to know where to look for say a rho.