[XeTeX] XITS Math font - first beata

[wodzicki at math.berkeley.edu]

> On Sat, Jun 05, 2010 at 04:02:15PM -0700, wodzicki at math.berkeley.edu
> wrote:
>> > On Sat, Jun 05, 2010 at 02:52:13PM -0700, wodzicki at math.berkeley.edu
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > I'm actually planning to include the rest of STIX styles in some
>> later
>> >> > release, STIX surpasses Termes in its Greek and Cyrillic coverage.
>> >> >
>> >> > If there is a real demand, I can do it earlier, but the only
>> >> improvement
>> >> > I see over regular STIX will be fractions and oldstyle figures.
>> >>
>> >> I think it's worth doing it, considering how little work it would
>> >> involve.
>> >> Then XITS would become a complete font.
>> >>
>> >> In my original post in this thread I suggested that Will just
>> >> temporarily
>> >> add to 'fontspec' an option that
>> >>
>> >> \setmainfont{XITS Math}
>> >>
>> >> means: load XITS Math for upright Roman, and STIXGeneral for
>> everything
>> >> else.
>> >
>> > You can already do that, check the manual for selecting arbitrary
>> italic
>> > and bold fonts.
>> >
>> > --
>> >  Khaled Hosny
>>
>> I know *that*. But it's cumbersome. It defeats one of the advantages of
>> using 'fontspec'; one would like to use just one versatile
>> \setmainfont[...]{...} and not to separately declare fonts for each
>> shape
>> one-by-one.
>
> But it is defiantly better than patching fontspec to support every
> exotic use case and font combination, also fontspec does much more than
> auto-selecting different font weights.
>
> --
>  Khaled Hosny

"...to support every exotic use case and font combination..."

Let's start from the fact, that there are barely 4 usable Math fonts at
the moment. And I count among these four your enhancement to STIXGeneral.
And only one out of these 4 begs for such an option to the 'fontspec'.

The second fact is: using XITS for Math and STIX for text is anything but
'every exotic use and font combination'.

An impression is as if you really don't care about people who will be
using XITS. I am one of those willing not only to use it but also to
spread the word about it. So, I care about providing a convenient
interface, like \setmainfont{}, for the possible users. If I cared only
about myself, I wouldn't waste time writing about it and begging for your
attention.

Regards,

Mariusz