[Fontinst] avoiding spaces in fd files

[cfrees at imapmail.org]

On Fri 28th May, 2010 at 12:10, Lars Hellström seems to have written:

> Dr. Clea F. Rees skrev:
>> This is not a big deal but I wondered if there is a way of avoiding the
>> problem. If I use the following command:
>> \installfamily{T1}{xyz}{\hyphenchar\font=\m at ne}
>> or:
>> \installfamily{T1}{xyz}{\hyphenchar\font=45}
>> fontinst introduces spaces into the fd files. That is, it will write
>> something like:
>> \DeclareFontFamily{T1}{clmd}{\hyphenchar \font = 45}
>> rather than:
>> \DeclareFontFamily{T1}{clmd}{\hyphenchar\font=45}
>> This is bad because pdfTeX, at least, does not like the spaces so the
>> files have to be hand-edited (or sed-edited, at least) afterwards.
>
> That's odd; I'd expect it to be
>
>  \DeclareFontFamily{T1}{clmd}{\hyphenchar \font =45}
>
> (no space after the =), and pdfTeX should have no problem with this 
> (regardless of whether there is a space after =) even if it looks ugly.
>
I'm afraid now I might have mistyped the line as I (stupidly) didn't
just cut and paste it and I was rather tired at the time. pdfTeX
definitely complained about the spaces, but I also had
\hyphenchar\font=\m at ne in there so maybe I confused which spaces were
causing the problem.

Sorry about any confusion. I have to admit that I don't actually know
what any of these instructions *mean* which may be contributing to the
problem...

Thanks,
cfr

>> Is this a known problem? Is there a good way around it?
>
> What is a known problem is
>
>  \installfamily{T1}{xyz}{\hyphenchar\font=\m at ne}
>
> since this tokenizes the same as
>
>  \installfamily{T1}{xyz}{\hyphenchar \font =\m @ne}
>
> and TeX will write the argument that way, as an instance of the rule to put a 
> space after each control sequence to clarify where it ends. Trying to parse 
> "\m @ne" as a number is something all TeXes will find problematic.
>
> As for good way around it... Writing \hypenchar\font=-1 is one possibility; 
> it costs one token more, but that is negligible in comparison to all the 
> rest.
>
> I think this is a topic where other list subscribers might have more 
> suggestions, though.
>
> Lars Hellström
>
>