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## page was renamed from ImportantNotesForNewbies
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You should see APL characters with any ordinary font: nowadays any system font should contain those characters. It might not look nice, but it should work.
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However, experience tells us that you get by far the best results with '''APL385 Unicode''' font.
Download here: http://www.dyalog.com/download/unicode/apl385.ttf
<<TableOfContents>>
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== First steps == In theory, you should see APL characters even with "Arial". Well, almost. Truth is that the version of "Arial" Windows is coming with is not a full Unicode font. There is a font "Arial Unicode MS" available on many machines, but this font comes with some versions of Microsoft Office and some versions of the Microsoft Publisher. This font is '''not''' free anyway.
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Read [[FrontPage/AboutTheWiki|About]], HelpOnEditing and [[SpecialCharacters|displaying APL characters and editing APL code]] before you start. Then practise on the [[http://aplteam2.com/testwiki/:|test wiki]]. In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
Furthermore, experience shows that some fonts are buggy: they contain most APL characters but not all.

So to be sure that you can see APL characters we suggest to install one of these fonts:

=== The "APLX Upright" Font ===

If you have installed a desktop version of APLX (full or evaluation copy), you will have this font installed already.

The font can be downloaded from:

http://www.microapl.co.uk/download/aplx_unicode.ttf

=== The "APL385 Unicode" Font ===

If you have installed Dyalog APL version 11 or later, you will have this font installed already.

The font can be downloaded from:

http://www.dyalog.com/download/unicode/apl385.ttf

=== Other APL fonts won't work ===

Note that fonts like "Dyalog Std", "Dyalog Alt", "Causeway" and many others are '''not''' Unicode fonts. Therefore, the APL wiki does not even try to use them: they won't work!
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If you use Internet Explorer, make sure that it is version 7 or better. Everything else is a nightmare.
Every modern Browser should be fine. I suggest the latest Firefox for best results.

If you use Internet Explorer, make sure that it is version 7 or better. Everything else is a nightmare. IE7 works just fine on about 99% of the boxes. On some machines, however, it does not work. So far nobody can explain why.

== "It work's with the APL wiki, but not elsewhere" ==

The APL wiki explicitly tells a browser to use one of the true APL Unicode fonts mentioned above. Furthermore, any page in the APL wiki declares itself as truely Unicode-capable. Therefore, it simply works: modern Browsers know what to do. However, the APL chars might not look nice if you do not install one of the fonts mentioned above.

But if you use that very same browser to visit APL discussion groups hosted by either Google (like comp.lang.apl) or Yahoo (like dyalogusers) or to send emails with embedded APL chars via a Browser (for example via !GoogleMail), then you '''must''' configure your Browser, otherwise it won't work. See ConfigueYourBrowserForUnicode for details

For displaying APL chars in emails and News Readers, things are a bit more complex. See ConfiguringMailAndNewsReaders for details.

APL Characters

In theory, you should see APL characters even with "Arial". Well, almost. Truth is that the version of "Arial" Windows is coming with is not a full Unicode font. There is a font "Arial Unicode MS" available on many machines, but this font comes with some versions of Microsoft Office and some versions of the Microsoft Publisher. This font is not free anyway.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. Furthermore, experience shows that some fonts are buggy: they contain most APL characters but not all.

So to be sure that you can see APL characters we suggest to install one of these fonts:

The "APLX Upright" Font

If you have installed a desktop version of APLX (full or evaluation copy), you will have this font installed already.

The font can be downloaded from:

http://www.microapl.co.uk/download/aplx_unicode.ttf

The "APL385 Unicode" Font

If you have installed Dyalog APL version 11 or later, you will have this font installed already.

The font can be downloaded from:

http://www.dyalog.com/download/unicode/apl385.ttf

Other APL fonts won't work

Note that fonts like "Dyalog Std", "Dyalog Alt", "Causeway" and many others are not Unicode fonts. Therefore, the APL wiki does not even try to use them: they won't work!

Browsers

Every modern Browser should be fine. I suggest the latest Firefox for best results.

If you use Internet Explorer, make sure that it is version 7 or better. Everything else is a nightmare. IE7 works just fine on about 99% of the boxes. On some machines, however, it does not work. So far nobody can explain why.

"It work's with the APL wiki, but not elsewhere"

The APL wiki explicitly tells a browser to use one of the true APL Unicode fonts mentioned above. Furthermore, any page in the APL wiki declares itself as truely Unicode-capable. Therefore, it simply works: modern Browsers know what to do. However, the APL chars might not look nice if you do not install one of the fonts mentioned above.

But if you use that very same browser to visit APL discussion groups hosted by either Google (like comp.lang.apl) or Yahoo (like dyalogusers) or to send emails with embedded APL chars via a Browser (for example via GoogleMail), then you must configure your Browser, otherwise it won't work. See ConfigueYourBrowserForUnicode for details

For displaying APL chars in emails and News Readers, things are a bit more complex. See ConfiguringMailAndNewsReaders for details.

AplCharacters (last edited 2017-11-02 07:12:15 by KaiJaeger)