[XeTeX] Wacky behavior of XeLaTeX in TeXLive 2011

[Andy Lin]

On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 08:48, Alessandro Ceschini
<alessandroceschini.it at gmail.com> wrote:
> Why should fontspec try to load a crappy slanted shape in the first place?

Slanted =/= crappy. You have have optically adjusted obliques for sans
serif typefaces. You can even have slanted serif fonts. Computer
Modern had a set of them. It ultimately comes down to using them
properly.

But to actually answer your question, fontspec tries to load it
because the command exists. It's designed to provide a working font
setup, which means populating all the font commands.

-Andy