� 09:56 2000-10-27 -0800, Alain LaBont� a �crit:
>� 09:36 2000-10-27 -0800, Magda Danish (Unicode) a �crit:
>>I received this email inquiry in French. I translated it to the best of my
>>knowledge but am not quite sure however what the word "Polices" stands for
>>here. My best guesses are "License" or "Policy" not to mention of course the
>>more obvious "cops" ;-)
>>I'm hoping Alain La Bonte or Patrick Andries will help clarify the correct
>>meaning.
>
>[Alain] � Une police [de caract�res] � simply means "a [character] font",
>as odd as it may look. In other contexts, � police � also means � cop � in
>French. Hard to catch for English-speakers, but true.
[Alain] I should add, for the records, that the word � police � in the
sense of "cop" in French comes from Greek "politeia", which means
"political body" and the word � police � in the sense of "font" comes from
ancient proven�al "polissia", which means "receipt, bill" (itself from
Greek "apodeixis", "proof").
It is the "proof of a character", a "concrete receipt of the character"
which you otherwise don't see, like the money you have given up in exchange
for a tangible proof...
Interesting, isn't it, in particular in the context of character coding?
Alain LaBont�
Qu�bec
