[XeTeX] \font syntax

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hi Jonathan,

Jonathan Kew wrote:
> 
> Another thing I've sometimes considered is an extended \XeTeXfont  
> command with optional keyword-argument pairs:
> 
>    \XeTeXfont\serp = "Serpentine" renderer "ICU" mapping "tex-text"
>        features "+smcp;+onum;-liga" slant "0.2" at 12pt % etc
> 
> as an alternative to packing everything into the "filename" that  
> \font expects. We already have the "scaled" and "at" keywords for the  
> \font command, but why not extend this to cover more aspects of  
> instantiating a font?

This sounds promising. As Hans said, luatex does not have a proper
font syntax extending the usage in (pdf)tex, but that does not
mean I can not create one. ;-)

Hans and I would be very pleased with a slightly different syntax

   \XeTeXfont \serp =
        name "Serpentine"        % and/or file "sspt____"
        renderer "ICU"  at 12pt  % all k/v in arbitrary order
        \relax                   % \relax terminates scanning

Because that way, the luatex executable could have a primitive
\luatexfont that converts the whole spec blindly into a lua table
(dictionary) for script processing.

Best wishes, Taco