Behaviour of \latinfamily

[Thierry Bouche]

» I don't know exactly, at which point .fd files come into play.

the last point, it's the \installfamily that records what should be
output, and \endinstallfonts actually takes care of producing the fd's.

» In general, fontinst needs an .mtx file to start the reencoding
» business, which is can generate itself from .afm or .pl files.

yes, with \afmtomtx, \mtxtopl and so on...

» \installrawfont is trickier, but I suppose it is the interanl
» function which is called by higher-level \installfont macros
» and eventually produces an .fd file from a temporary .mtx file.

i don't think so, it is rather a simplified version that produces
ligfull TFMs rather than VFs (at an early  step in finst history, i
believe that 8r base fonts were done with afm2tfm, then Constantin
Kahn came with \installrawfonts...)

» > But I've never seen fontinst place any entries in a 8r.fd file, even
» > though it's created 8r.fd files for me quite happily.
» 
» This might be a problem indeed.  The default settings of \latin_encodings
» tell fontinst to proudce OT1 and T1 only, so I don't know, why this is 
» generated in the first place.

i never use \latinfamily ;-) (because i prefered to use my own shell
scripts to build driver files rather than rely on latinfamily, but i
think \latinfamily{pbv}{} is more or less equivalent to 

\installfonts
       \installfamily{8r}{pbv}{}
      \installfamily{OT1}{pbv}{}
      \installfamily{T1}{pbv}{}

\transformfont{pbvd8r}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvd8a}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvd8r}{pbvd8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{db}{n}{}
      \installfont{pbvd7t}{pbvd8r,psyr,latin}{OT1}{OT1}{pbv}{db}{n}{}
      \installfont{pbvd8t}{pbvd8r,latin}{T1}{T1}{pbv}{db}{n}{}
\transformfont{pbvdo8r}{\slantfont{167}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvd8a}}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvdo8r}{pbvdo8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{db}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvdo7t}{pbvdo8r,psyro,latin}{OT1}{OT1}{pbv}{db}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvdo8t}{pbvdo8r,latin}{T1}{T1}{pbv}{db}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvdc7t}{pbvd8r,psyr,latin}{OT1c}{OT1}{pbv}{db}{sc}{}
      \installfont{pbvdc8t}{pbvd8r,latin}{T1c}{T1}{pbv}{db}{sc}{}
\transformfont{pbvdi8r}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvdi8a}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvdi8r}{pbvdi8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{db}{it}{}
      \installfont{pbvdi7t}{pbvdi8r,psyro,latin}{OT1i}{OT1}{pbv}{db}{it}{}
      \installfont{pbvdi8t}{pbvdi8r,latin}{T1i}{T1}{pbv}{db}{it}{}
\transformfont{pbvr8r}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvr8a}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvr8r}{pbvr8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{m}{n}{}
      \installfont{pbvr7t}{pbvr8r,psyr,latin}{OT1}{OT1}{pbv}{m}{n}{}
      \installfont{pbvr8t}{pbvr8r,latin}{T1}{T1}{pbv}{m}{n}{}
\transformfont{pbvro8r}{\slantfont{167}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvr8a}}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvro8r}{pbvro8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{m}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvro7t}{pbvro8r,psyro,latin}{OT1}{OT1}{pbv}{m}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvro8t}{pbvro8r,latin}{T1}{T1}{pbv}{m}{sl}{}
      \installfont{pbvrc7t}{pbvr8r,psyr,latin}{OT1c}{OT1}{pbv}{m}{sc}{}
      \installfont{pbvrc8t}{pbvr8r,latin}{T1c}{T1}{pbv}{m}{sc}{}
\transformfont{pbvri8r}{\reencodefont{8r}{\fromafm{pbvri8a}}}
      \installrawfont{pbvri8r}{pbvri8r,latin}{8r}{8r}{pbv}{m}{it}{}
      \installfont{pbvri7t}{pbvri8r,psyro,latin}{OT1i}{OT1}{pbv}{m}{it}{}
      \installfont{pbvri8t}{pbvri8r,latin}{T1i}{T1}{pbv}{m}{it}{}
\endinstallfonts\bye

so it should install  8r fonts & fd.

» > In particular, I've not seen fontinst substitute it for ui.
» 
» I believe it does so or OT1 only because of \pounds vs. \dollar.

you mean it _should_. i also tested that and did not get what i expected.

»   If there is no other doucmentation, you have
» no choice but 

writing it! ;-)
Th. B.