[XeTeX] Contextual Ligature Problems with OT Tamil Font Converted to AAT

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jun 19, 2011, at 8:58 AM, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:

> 
> 
> Peter Dyballa wrote:
>> 
>> Am 19.06.2011 um 15:14 schrieb Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd):
>> 
>>> Yes, but your mail will be read by others (such as myself)
>>> who are unaware of either of these facts, and will then be
>>> misled into believing that it should work in their platform.
>> 
>> The term "AAT" stands for "Apple Advanced Typography". The term is also
>> used in the fontspec manual. And it appears in many files of the TeX
>> distribution.
>> 
>> You shouldn't blame me or others (you not included). But look into
>> Wikipedia or some other source of wisdom and information. I am also sure
>> that some simple facts can be learned. Like that it's bright when it's
>> day and that it's dark when it's night. (At least on Earth.) Put into
>> other words: I know where AAT, ICU, and Graphite belong to or come from
>> and don't spend further thinking on this, it is to me as common as day
>> and night are to most people. And since this is no hermetism or
>> esotericism I use them in the same way as the ideas of day and night and
>> some million other things.
> 
> Then perhaps you are an Apple user.  I am not.  Millions of
> potential readers of your message are not.  They will have
> no idea what AAT stands for.  They will have no idea whether
> or not they have an AAT renderer, or a Graphite renderer,
> or any other renderer, as a part of their system.  This does
> not mean that they do not know that it is dark when it is night :
> they inhabit the same real world as you, but a totally different
> world when it comes to computers and computing. [1]
> 
> I am not /blaming/ you, or anyone else : I am simply asking,
> for the benefit of the vast majority of computer users that
> do not use, and have zero experience of, an Apple Macintosh
> computer, that when you (or others) make a statement that
> is true only for the Apple Macintosh platform, you make that
> plain, so that the rest of us do not spend hours wondering why
> something does not work.
> 
> This is directly analogous to the statement in Will's XeTeX
> documentation that "color" may take a fourth (transparency)
> byte in the extended font syntax; the statement is true, but
> it will have no effect when "xdvipdfmx" (the default driver)
> is used to process the file.  Documentation is wonderful,
> and everyone applauds those who write it, but for it to be
> useful it must also be accurate.
> 
>>> 
>>> /Please/, when making platform-specific statements, make
>>> this obvious in the message; it will save a great deal
>>> of grief and misunderstandings in the long run.
>> 
>> I did not make platform specific statements, I made software, font, and
>> font renderer specific statements.
>> 
>> 
>> Does Graphite work on any platform?
> 
> I have no idea.  I know that my pencil "lead" is
> really graphite, and I know it can be used as a lubricant,
> but what it means in terms of fonts is completely opaque
> to me (and, I suspect, to millions of others as well).
> 
>> Why don't you complain here as well?
> 
> I am not complaining : I am asking for precision, which
> is another matter entirely.
> 
>> 
>> Would it work to extend netiquette of this list to mention in the
>> subject that the reported problem is specific to some OS so that
>> recipients can put those OS words into their kill files?
> 
> What is a "kill file" ?  Another platform-specific feature, I suppose !
> 
> Philip Taylor
> --------
> [1] Apple Macintosh users are currently estimated as forming
> less than 10% of the total worldwide computer base.  Data
> taken from W3Schools, which I would not normally cite, but
> I have no reason to doubt this statement.
> 
> http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
> 

Howdy,

Since XeTeX uses system fonts and they are treated differently on different platforms it's only natural that platform specific things come up on this list. I have rarely, if ever, seen titles or content that tell you immediately what platform people are talking about although listening for a while gives you some information once you learn a bit about other platforms. So please, let's stop this.

Oh... sorry, but one comment about the ``footnote'' in the message. I would suggest that Mac users are a considerably higher percentage of XeTeX users worldwide than the number quoted there.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)