[XeTeX] XeTeX in lshort

[Philipp Stephani]

Am 30.09.2010 um 17:33 schrieb Axel Kielhorn:

>> The attractiveness to using LaTeX to exchange documents (in the past,
>> and to a large extent, even now) is that you can be sure that the
>> source file can be read by your computer, even if you don't have the
>> same fonts or language support (EOL and codepage issues aside). XeTeX
>> introduces many stumbling blocks to this portability, even as it
>> solves others.
> 
> There are quiet a lot of opentype fonts included with TeXLive (and probably MikTeX).
> May I need to stress that anything not provided by TL may be less portable.

Yes, but if you want portability, you use the Portable Document Format. The key advantage of XeTeX is the ability to use system fonts without any effort. If you want to restrict yourself to TeX Live fonts (ignoring professional fonts such as Cambria or Hoefler Text), then XeTeX is much less useful than it can be.

>> TeXworks and TeXmaker are very good candidates for inclusion because they're easy to use and are cross-platform.
> 
> I will add a short note about TeXworks since it is supplied by TL (for Windows and MacOS).

TeXshop as very popular IDE and if TeXworks, which is modeled on TeXshop, is mentioned, then TeXshop should be mentioned as well.

> 
>> I've run several LaTeX workshops for the linguistics department at my
>> university, and most people go straight back to Word because seeing
>> \emph{} makes them physically uncomfortable. The few that stay with
>> it, they need a little guidance and a lot of information. This is
>> where a document like an xshort would come in.
>> 
>> A few suggestions
>> -I would like to see mention of RTL and CJK support in the XeTeX
>> section, the is the main reason why I use XeTeX over (pdf)LaTeX. I'd
>> also change "in the past" to "in regular LaTeX" or something similar.
> 
> I will extend the paragraph about RTL and mention CJK.
> Both, pdfLaTeX and XeLaTeX are regular LaTeX.

Ideally the distinction between engine, format, executables and packages should be worked out. Often this distinction isn't clear even to long-term users.

> 
>> A current user of LaTeX is unlikely to read lshort.
> 
> That depends on the marketing:
> Now with improved Unicode support!
> Use your system fonts, including C*mic S*ans!

http://ctan.org/pkg/comicsans ;-)

>> -under "How do I get OpenType fonts", I would add "OpenType fonts are
>> included with Windows (XP or newer), and all versions of OS X."
> 
> That would be unportable.

Maybe, but it is the key reason to use XeTeX!

> 
>> -I would also mention AAT fonts for OS X
> 
> I'd rather not. AAT is not portable.

Same as above. The initial reason to develop XeTeX was to provide access to AAT fonts, and XeTeX was a Mac-only product for a long time.