[XeTeX] Question about polyglossia and babel

[Vladimir Lomov]

Hi.

2010/11/23 Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa at web.de>:
>
> Am 22.11.2010 um 15:40 schrieb Alexander:
>
>> After upgrade to TL 2010 these commands not work.
>
> I see in my console log:
>
>
>  (/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/polyglossia/gloss-russian.ldf
>
>        Package polyglossia Warning: No hyphenation patterns were loaded for
> `Russian'
>        (polyglossia)                I will use \language=\l at nohyphenation
> instead on input line 12.
>
>
>        Package polyglossia Warning: \setlocalhyphenmin useless for
> unhyphenated language russian on input line 12.
>
>
>  (/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/polyglossia/babelsh.def))
> (/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/polyglossia/gloss-english.ldf)
>
> The LOG file shows additionally:
>
>
>  (/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/polyglossia/babelsh.def
>        File: babelsh.def 2009/05/07 Babel common definitions for shorthands
>         Taken verbatim from babel.def (2008/07/06 v3.8l)
>        )
>        Package babel Info: Making " an active character on input line 42.
>        )
>        Package polyglossia Info: Default language is russian..
>
> (/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/polyglossia/gloss-english.ldf
>        File: gloss-english.ldf polyglossia: module for english
>        )
To use babel shorthands one should pass option 'babelshorthands=true'
to polyglossia when loading it or to \setdefaultlanguage command.

> So polyglossia is failing and switches to Babel.
IMHO, polyglossia doesn't use babel at all. It mimics babel but not loads it.

Nevertheless the actual problem is not how to use babel shorthands but
in Russian typeset rules. The em dash used in Russian typography style
differs from English/Western case so babel defines special commands to
support Russian em dash style. Previously this definition was copied
to polyglossia (by me) but it doesn't work as expected.

P.S. Something wrong with your TL setup because here I could compile
the file without such messages. May be you switch off support for some
languages?

---
WBR, Vladimir Lomov