[XeTeX] Extended \font declarations?

[Hans Hagen]

Gilles Pérez-Lambert wrote:

>Hello to all,
>
>What about an `extended' \font system saying (imaginary syntax to be improved):
>
>\fontrange\whatever="Skia Regular" 32-3000
>\fontrange\whatever="STHeiti Light" 10000-15000
>\font\myfont=\whatever at 18 pt
>  
>
something like this is indeed needed in order to overcome the problem of  incomplete fonts

concerning the syntax, drop the - i.e. just two numbers; i think implementing something like the following is more texlike (and easier to implement with regard to expansions of \whatever, i.e. tex does not have symbolic names like that) 

\unicodefontdef\myfontspec
\unicodefontspec\myfontspec="somename"
\unicodefontrange\myfontspec=32000 45000
\unicodefont\myfont at 18pt 

or (like register defs): 

\newcount\unicodefontcounter

\def\unicodefontdef#1%
  {\global\advance\unicodefontcounter 1\relax
   #1=\unicodefontcounter}

\unicodefontspec<number>="quoted string" 
\unicodefontrange<number>=<number> <number>
\unicodefont<number> <size spec> 

this permits a structured approach to font definitions 

so, instead of overloading \font just make a new primitive and extensibility 


Hans  

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