[XeTeX] Emacs (X11) and XeTeX

[Martin Steer]

Stephen Moye <stephenmoye at mac.com> writes:

> I am now quite happily using emacs under X11. I'd like to be able to
> run XeTeX (preferably with options such as -output-driver=..., or,
> better, run shell scripts such as TeXShop's 'engines') in much the
> same way that a LaTeX file is run (C-c C-c), say, with something
> like C-c C-x. It just occurred to me that it would be nice if emacs
> could be persuaded to read the %!TEX comments and act accordingly.
>
> I have googled, but have only turned up references to auctex, which
> apparently had support for XeTeX but which, according to some of the
> posts I read, seems to be broken.
>
> Is anyone doing this currently? Would there be a more effective
> place to post this query?

I had a look at the auctex list, and found a nice solution. Putting
the following expression in your .emacs (use the customization buffer
if you prefer) will add xelatex as a command style:

(add-to-list 'LaTeX-command-style
	     '("\\`fontspec\\'" "xelatex %S%(PDFout)"))

When you compile (C-c C-c) a file which calls fontspec, xelatex will
be used. You could make that "xelatex -output-driver=xdvipdfmx
%S%(PDFout)", etc.

Were you suggesting that auctex is broken (it's not), or that auctex
support for xetex is broken? If you use emacs for tex then auctex is
certainly worth trying.

--
Martin