[MPEG-OTSPEC] Updates to specification

[Dave Crossland]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2020, 8:28 PM Levantovsky, Vladimir <
Vladimir.Levantovsky at monotype.com> wrote:

> With my AHG chair hat on, in addition to what I mentioned earlier [about
> the importance of having an open forum that offers unrestricted access to
> any willing participant], what I didn’t mention is that establishing that
> forum isn’t strictly up to us – it is up to the ISO WG to establish the AHG
> and choose the provider who will be hosting that group’s email list. The
> list of established AHGs with the information about their approved
> mandates, email lists, and how to join them is published after every
> Working Group meeting – this is how the assurances are made that it is
> truly open for anyone interested to join.
>
Got it. Who is on the ISO WG for OFF, and where is the most recent
publication as you described? :)



>
>
> Of the several places where discussions have arisen in the last few years,
> most of them are such Github repos:
>
>
>
> (1) meta discussions about how to make font format spec updates - here, on
> Twitter.com, and TypeDrawers.com.
>
>
>
> (2) editorial change ideas happening here and in
>
>  https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/typography-issues/issues
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/VmbvCv2z58h71yOOFQgmMs> and
>
> https://www.commontype.org
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/PMfICwpA5KsG6R00Tq7rH9> .
>
>
>
> (3) technical change ideas happening here and in
>
> https://github.com/opentype
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/CdTXCxkB52t18QmmcYvk1f> ,
>
> https://github.com/commontype-standard
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/4rJXCzpE57sMDm88coX7VM> ,
>
> https://github.com/be5invis/OTVAR-ZVAR-Table
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ufbOCAD2oMhN01rrfMRPzk> ,
>
> https://github.com/microsoft/OpenTypeDesignVariationAxisTags
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/rd74CBB2pPc7qlPPFvWYNB> ,
>
> https://github.com/googlefonts/colr-gradients-spec
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Uo4fCDk2rQt5pOjjsBHZ69> and
>
> https://github.com/microsoft/OpenType-XVAR-proposal
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/9w0SCER2v0u3y611syvUj4> .
>
>
>
> (4) efforts to consolidate the 'script development specs' such as
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/script-development/bengali
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/i4URCG62xMh1nLWWcWfVMB> from MS,
>
> https://github.com/n8willis/opentype-shaping-documents/
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/wVhBCJ62ANhqOQppTnLA4s/> from Nathan
> Willis,
>
> https://github.com/typotheque/text-shaping
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/IdlGCKr2BLh2Kr88frAEaB> from Liang
> Hai, and related tools like
>
> https://bitbucket.org/LindenbergSW/fontdoctools/src/master/R%C3%B6ntgen.md
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ycScCM82gJsqP6xxT3qWI-> from Norbert
> Lindenberg.
>
>
>
> So, to the subject line, if any of these efforts want to land changes in
> the OFF spec, mailing suggestions to this list and expecting Vlad to copy
> and paste text from email app to document editor app seems a bit... cruel
> :) Clearly this is a solved problem :)
>
> I expect that many of those Github repos would close, if there was a true
> central repo that their energy could be productively funnelled into.
>
>
>
> Thank you Dave, this is a very impressive and comprehensive list of
> resources, and very useful to have handy for future references.
>

I also forgot to mention the other email lists: there's the Yahoo one that
was migrated successfully to the archives here, the indx.co.uk one, and at
least 2 on unicode.org, for layout and for variations.

When it comes to editorial efforts, while certain things may definitely
> become easier to handle, I don’t expect that everything can be automated.
> ISO Directives impose certain specific guidelines on project editors on how
> ISO documents need to be written / structured, they have their own lingo of
> sorts (ISO English if you will) – the latest amendment available for
> download from publicly available standards is a good example, and had to be
> rewritten using recently updated guidelines (which means that “cruel work
> of copying / pasting” had to be repeated to a degree, since my early draft
> didn’t comply with updated requirements. J
>
> Haha :)

Where can we read about the guidelines for "ISO English"?

And, does that mean there is a persistent delta between the MS Typography
site OT spec and the OFF spec text?

Given 'here' is somewhat random Austrian university mailman, can the AHG
> have such a Github repo?
>
>
>
> A caveat – “here” being “Austrian university mailman” isn’t random – it is
> what MPEG approved to be used as the AHG email list.
>

Understood, and there are many other MPEG lists here.

What I meant by "random" is in a sense to echo the point I made that the
list is obscure: I doubt anyone will guess "oh yes, to discuss this font
format, I should join an Austrian University mailing list" :)

Indeed, outside the rather labyrinthian ISO website itself, does anyone
know of any prominent notices about the existence of this mailing list on
any website? I don't recall ever seeing any...

After you and I chatted about using GitHub, I did send the question to ISO
> folks to help me figure out whether it would be possible to move the
> maintenance work of the OFF standard to GitHub, but have not heard back
> yet. I will ping them again to see if we can get it going, hopefully soon.
>
🙏

>
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