[XeTeX] Beginner questions

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 23.10.2010 um 17:30 schrieb Ulrike Fischer:

> Am Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:27:46 +0200 schrieb Peter Dyballa:
>
>
>>> 1. Is it possible to replace unicode by applemac encoding? What are
>>> the commands in this case?
>
>> If you want to continue typing in applemac input encoding you better
>> stay with the much more developed pdfTeX.  All packages work with
>> pdfTeX, and additionally you gain micro-typography. And: you can also
>> continue to use PostScript fonts.
>
> Why shouldn't someone be forced to use utf8 encoding if its texts
> use only chars from a 8bit codepage?

This question is not clear to me (should someone /be/ forced or /not  
be/ forced?), so I just remark that it's some over-kill.

> Xetex is quite able to handle them if you declare the encoding.

Hopefully...  And it's not clear which input encodings are really  
supported by XeTeX and do work. And how do you seduce XeTeX to output  
all auxiliary files in this non-UTF-8 encoding?

> Also why is pdftex "more devoloped"?

Version number, age, number of developers involved, code review,  
almost bug-free...

> Because it doesn't offer Open Type support?

No. This "support" simply is not needed. You can use lean fonts with  
pdfTeX and the packages perform what the faulty tables of an OTF font  
don't always deliver. It's left to the author to implement more fancy  
tricks.

> And it is new to me that "all packages work with pdftex", fontspec  
> e.g.
> doesn't do it.

No, it does! To me it tells that I need to use XeTeX. Are you using an  
elderly version of fontspec v.2?

> Also XeTeX has no problems to use Postscript fonts either.

I make my CD and DVD covers this way... And here lies the advantage of  
XeTeX: it can use arbitrary fonts, fonts with a particular look&feel,  
without need to create and install the plethora of pdfTeX font support  
files. (For simplistic things PostScript fonts really are OK XeTeX.  
For creating something more elaborate it's better to use an evolved  
font format.)

> But you are right: pdftex has better microtypography support.
>
>
>> A PostScript font is for XeTeX or LuaTeX as useful as a
>> French car without gas for its owner or user.
>
> Well I'm using a lot of postscript fonts with xetex and luatex, e.g.
> to print chessboards and chess games and find them very useful.


This is so easy work, that you could use MS Word...

--
Mit friedvollen Grüßen

   Pete

Perl—the only language that looks the same before and after RSA  
encryption.
				- Keith Bostic