[XeTeX] Whitespace in input

[Philip TAYLOR]

mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Nov 2011, Philip TAYLOR wrote:
>> I think (with respect) that "some Unicode code points outside the 7-bit range"
>> is a gross understatement.  As far as I am aware, XeTeX permits a very
>> considerable
>> subset of Unicode (perhaps even all of it; I do not know) as input.
>
> My point is that it shouldn't treat U+00A0 as equivalent to U+007E, or
> as valid at all, just because it supports "Unicode."  That is not what
> supporting Unicode means.

I agree with your opinion that it should not
treat U+00A0 as equivalent to U+007E -- indeed,
the Unicode standard specifies as its canonical
decomposition :

	<noBreak> SPACE (U+0020)

However, I cannot agree that it should not be
treated as valid; that is just the thin end of
the wedge, and I would sooner there were no
wedge at all.  XeTeX's primary strength is that
it supports Unicode; we should not weaken that
strength by requiring that it supports some parts
of Unicode and not others.

My EUR 0,02.
** Phil.