[OS X TeX] metapost

[NMPOST7]

On 22/03/2013 20:36, Peter Dyballa wrote:
> Do you know XeTeX? XeTeX (and LuaTeX) documents are in Unicode (UTF-8 or UTF-16 encodings for example). 
No pre-processing is necessary, you just input the Malayalam text as-is.

Yes, I tried XeTeX a few months back (before TeXLive 2012 came out). However,
the ligatures were wrongly placed.

> With the pre-processor you have a complicated task in creating the final PDF file. 
In this case it's probably not a big problem to use METAPOST and feed its output
somehow into the
file, but with XeTeX you can produce the final PDF in one compilation step.

True, it is a bit of a task. However, as I have a makefile, it eases my task a bit.

> On Leopard you still can upgrade (via net-install) to TeX Live 2012 (which has a new 
XeTeX version that is based on HarfBuzz, found in the X servers on linux, and
might have
some advantage over the previous version) – I did it recently to become able to
test the
new XeTeX versions. And it's certain that TeX Live 2013 will support Leopard.

I have already updated to TeX Live 2012. I shall try this once more. Trying out
another *TeX system is a bit of a time consuming thing for me, as I need to look
up the syntax and file structure. As and when time permits, I need to look into
this. Mine is a time consuming project as it involves translation,
interpretation and typesetting. The one I am doing now is a new project,
although private. The first project involves dance drama text (Libretti) and
although initially, there are only four books, the rest will come to more than
40 books.

> There is also a specialised XeTeX mailing list. It has Mac, Linux, and MS users.
> When you have very special requests for the graphics you need to include, 
PSTricks might be an option. Its users contribute so many specialised packages
with prêt-à-utiliser graphical objects.

In the English version (and the German version) of the project I use PSTricks.
It is a big help. In my trial using METAPOST, the result has been wonderful as
an extremely precise positioning of the lines was possible.

BR
suren