[XeTeX] XeTeX documentation "initiative"

[Alan Munn]

On Sep 8, 2010, at 5:25 AM, Michiel Kamermans wrote:

> On 9/7/2010 9:23 PM, Wilfred van Rooijen wrote:
>> It seems that there have been no replies to the list about  
>> Michiel's proposal to make a combined xe(la)tex reference manual  
>> and user manual. Personally I would be willing to contribute, but I  
>> am not an expert on xetex, rather a casual user with perhaps  
>> "advanced" experience of using latex for several types of  
>> (scientific) publications. Michiel, what exactly so you have in  
>> mind? A Xe(La)TeX Companion, i.e. similar to the latex companion  
>> but based on xelatex, and then expanded to include more references  
>> to xetex specific commands and programming?
>>
>> I can see something like this: a user manual focusing on xelatex,  
>> typesetting of scientific works, bibtex and the associated front  
>> ends, hyperref etc, beamer to make presentations, TikZ (2D and 3D)  
>> to make figures, in short, something like a latex companion but  
>> modernized and expanded to include a reference manual.
>>
>
> That was my idea. I was considering starting with the "XeTeX  
> companion" [1] that Michel Goossens collaboratively started in 1996,  
> and extending it/updating it to cover the basic topic of TeX, the  
> specific topic of the XeTeX flavour, and all commonly used packages  
> that end up being discussed on this list again and again (fontspec,  
> polyglossia, hyperref, xeCJK, bidi, etc), as well as a section on  
> writing your own commands and package, also highlighting common  
> basic TeX commands you should at least have seen if you want to have  
> any hope of writing a decent XeTeX command yourself, like the "Plain  
> TeX Quick Reference" [2], but then adapted to also contain the XeTeX  
> specific commands that let one write a generally useful macro. A  
> section on pdf-related commands would also be essential, I think,  
> especially for those who need to generate production PDF (several  
> people in the past year asked questions falling under that topic).

Just a couple of comments here as both a LaTeX and XeLaTeX user who  
also deals quite often with new users (students):

The documentation plan as described above by both Wilfred and Mike  
seems to involve an awful lot of duplication between existing LaTeX  
documentation, and this seems like a waste of everyone's time.  The  
tricky part, of course, is separating out the the Xe from the LaTeX  
information.  Since the vast majority of LaTeX packages are engine  
independent, it doesn't make sense to explain them separately in  
XeLaTeX documentation.

On the other hand, there are some basic issues that need to be dealt  
with that are engine specific, like fonts, input encoding and the  
various great new packages that depend on xelatex.  It would make the  
most sense to focus on this sort of documentation first.  Also helpful  
might be something like "what parts to ignore/replace of LaTeX  
documentation when using XeLaTeX".

One other thing that arises with XeLaTeX that doesn't with LaTeX is  
the fact that documents are no longer as portable as they are with  
LaTeX.  Unfortunately, simplifying access to system fonts comes with  
this cost.  We've already encountered this with the occasional  
question about how to compile the fontspec documentation, but the  
problem is more general as we think of making any XeLaTeX  
documentation more general itself.

Alan


-- 
Alan Munn
amunn at gmx.com