Hi Pander,<br>I am interested in your script.<br>Best,<br clear="all">Nicolas Vaughan<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 2:33 AM, Pander <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pander@users.sourceforge.net">pander@users.sourceforge.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5">John Was wrote:<br>
> Dear All<br>
><br>
> Since starting to use (plain) XeTeX I've noticed something strange with<br>
> the paragraphing/line-breaking mechanism which has never happened during<br>
> the ten years or so during which I have used traditional TeX. It is<br>
> cropping up in the fourth issue of a periodical that I have set with<br>
> XeTeX, so I'm pretty sure that it's not a random fluke.<br>
><br>
> (1) I sometimes get an overfull rule (i.e. rectangular box) at the<br>
> right-hand side which will disappear when I either (a) attach the word<br>
> causing the problem to the next word with ~, forcing it over (I<br>
> sometimes have to put the word in an \hbox{} as well); or (b) when I<br>
> increase the line-count by giving \looseness1 for the paragraph. In the<br>
> past, plain TeX would always make such decisions for itself and never<br>
> generate an overfull rule when it could find a way to justify the<br>
> paragraph without doing so. This happens most frequently in the reviews<br>
> section of the periodical, where \looseness is set to -1 by default to<br>
> save as much space as possible: but until I started to use XeTeX, it<br>
> was always the case that if the paragraph could not lose a line, then<br>
> the negative looseness was ignored and the paragraph was set<br>
> successfully with normal looseness (i.e. \looseness = 0). It was never<br>
> (I think) the case that a tight looseness which generated an overfull<br>
> box would get through and need manual intervention from me. So has<br>
> something altered in the way XeTeX is handling the line-breaks, giving<br>
> priority to the looseness command even at the expense of generating an<br>
> overfull rule, and even when zero looseness would cause that error to<br>
> disappear?<br>
><br>
> (2) This is even more puzzling (and more of an nuisance). For the<br>
> purpose of sending contributors proofs of their reviews I start each<br>
> review on a new page so that they don't also receive the tops and tails<br>
> of adjacent reviews, but while initially typesetting I have the reviews<br>
> running on consecutively, as they will do in the final published<br>
> version. There is a switch at the end of each review which generates a<br>
> \vfill \eject when \ifseparatereviews is true, otherwise it just<br>
> produces a \vskip: there is no other difference. Yet I sometimes get<br>
> overfull rules showing up (at random points) when the reviews are<br>
> separated out, even though the same paragraph typeset without error<br>
> while the reviews were set to run on continuously. The problem almost<br>
> (but not entirely) disappears if I double the \hfuzz when the<br>
> \ifseparatereviews switch is true, but that is no more than a quick fix<br>
> to prevent authors receiving proofs with worrying blobs at the<br>
> right-hand side. This seems incomprehensible, but as it has happened<br>
> with four out of four periodical issues I can't be imagining it - and<br>
> the commands are precisely the same as the ones I used when the<br>
> periodical was typeset using traditional plain TeX, with no new<br>
> parameters such as alteration to \spaceskip or anything else that might<br>
> cause this to happen.<br>
><br>
> (1) and (2) seem likely to be part of the same problem (though not<br>
> necessarily so). Any ideas, or at least insight into what XeTeX is<br>
> doing that old plain TeX didn't?<br>
><br>
> Thanks<br>
><br>
><br>
> John<br>
<br>
</div></div>Hi all,<br>
<br>
Slightly related is something I have made. Sometimes you have some<br>
freedom of choice in font and in the dimensions of the margins of the<br>
work you are about to make. Each selection will have a different amount of:<br>
- Overfull<br>
- Underfull<br>
- hyphenation exceptions<br>
<br>
I have made a python script that, via exhaustive enumeration, will find<br>
the optimum settings for a minimum amount of occurrences of the list<br>
above. Using those optimal settings could be a smarter starting point<br>
for fixing widows, orphans and hyphenation exceptions.<br>
<br>
If someone is interested in this script. please contact me.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Pander<br>
<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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