[XeTeX] [tex-live] Ftuture state of XeTeX in TeXLive

[Petr Tomasek]

On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 04:29:18PM +0100, Paul Isambert wrote:
> Le 30/10/2011 13:20, George N. White III a écrit :
> > On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny at eglug.org> 
> wrote:
> >> Writing an OpenType layout engine is not a simple task, and you can
> >> judge from the many years it toke FOSS community to have a really good
> >> one, HarfBuzz (the name luaotfload is misleading, font loading is about
> >> the easiest part of luaotfload, OpenType implementation is really what
> >> matters.) If it were for me, I'd plug HarfBuzz into luatex proper and
> >> call it a day, but this does not align well with the "design" principles
> >> of luatex so it is unlikely to happen.
> >
> > If plugging harfbuzz into luatex does not require a huge effort, it could
> > serve as bridge from xetex to luatex while a more principled design
> > is being created. Principles are nice, and have benefits over the long
> > haul, but in cases where the design is evolving it really helps to get
> > an implementation into the hands of users and let them point out the
> > areas where work is needed.
> 
> As far as I can see, the principles behind LuaTeX are pretty clear; it
> offers tools, not solutions. Sometimes that makes it apparently slow-witted,
> like TeX itself, because it refuses to implement solutions that seem
> successful elsewhere. But one shouldn't forget that (Lua)TeX is an
> extremely sophisticated typographic system, and that flexibility is an
> integral part of it. Using HarfBuzz would probably offer a simple solution,
> but you'd lose what makes LuaTeX so worthwhile.
> 
> Best,
> Paul

What is so "worthwile" on cripling one scripting language with
another one?

P.

-- 
Petr Tomasek <http://www.etf.cuni.cz/~tomasek>
Jabber: butrus at jabbim.cz

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