Behaviour of \latinfamily

[Sebastian Rahtz]

Rebecca and Rowland writes:
 > >   \if_file_exists{
 > >      \font_family\font_weight\raw_shape
 > >         \raw_variant\raw_encoding\font_width.mtx
 > >   }\then
 > >     \immediate\write16{INFO>~found~\font_family\font_weight
 > >           \raw_shape\raw_variant\raw_encoding\font_width.mtx}
 > >      \latin_encodings
 > >   \fi
 > 
 > Right - I see.  No wonder I couldn't work it out on my own.  The only
 > useful information I can get out of that is that a file ending with .mtx is
 > being checked for existance.
and then \latin_encodings is executed

 > The job is *possible*, but very, very, very, very difficult for me.  On the
 > other hand, some people can do this sort of thing with several orders of
 > magnitude less effort than me.  Better than that, some people have already
 > done this and *know* how fontinst works.  Unfortunately, none of them seem
no, i don't think they have. i, for one, just skim the TeX code when i
want to understand something, but i have never set down and attempted
to put the logic down on paper. it took me several minutes to render
the code into the slightly more readable form i emailed the other day,
but it was just sugar

 > I appreciate this.  I've compared your translation (which I've had to
 > translate myself using a bit of paper to understand it) with the original
 > source code and I can see no way of deriving one from the other.  Maybe it
it was just search and replace editing, more or less!

 > *is* possible, but God knows how.  There's so many unknown variables
 > involved that it's just noise to me.  (For example: what is \font_family,
oh come, use common sense. what do you *think* the variable
\font_family is????????? who cares where its set, thats irrelevant to
understanding this macro. 
 > NEED TO KNOW:
 > 
 > 1)
 > What form the int exprs can take, and what they mean exactly (AJ's fontinst
um, an integer is a whole number, isnt it? is it any more complicated
than that?

 > Can you say \frompl{xxx} (needs xxx.pl)?  (not mentioned in any
yes, sure.

 > The \fake_shape_ definition mentions ligfull installation (if possible) and
 > expert encoding amongst other things.  How do these relate to your
 > explanation above, and what does a ligfull installation *mean*?
ligfull installation means that the ligature information in the AFM
file is copied to the output metric

 > >\latinfamily calls\latin_weights which executes \latin_widths which
 > >executes \latin_shapes which executes \latin_encodings
 > 
 > Yes, but what does that mean?  You've told me the order of execution but I
 > don't know what any of those macros do, nor do I know anything about how
 > they are called.  You see what I mean about the explanations being noise?
no, i dont see. i dont know how to say it any clearer!
 > 
 > \latinfamily calls\xyykjshj which executes \lweoijns which
 > executes \kajhfgkjn which executes \awndgzjn?
fine. whats the problem? then i just have to see what \lweoijns does.

 > It did last time I used it; I've been wondering how to get it to write
 > *useful* 8r fd files rather than have to make them by hand.  The version
Ulrik pointed out a bug in my stuff which had bad effects....

 > % (the real author of fontinst). Please contact Sebastian with
 > % any questions or complaints
it doesnt say i'll be able to answer them :-}

sebastian