[pdftex] Math Pdftex extensions ?

[Hans Hagen]

Reinhard Kotucha wrote:

>>>>>>"Paul" == Paul Pichaureau <paul.pichaureau at alcandre.net> writes:
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>
>  >   Dear all,
>
>  >   As I'm a fanatic a beautiful typography, I'm following your work
>  > on pdftex with great attention, especially enjoying the pdftex
>  > extensions already implemented (microtype and all the hz stuff).
>
>  >   Anyway, I'm wondering if you plan to extend pdftex in order to
>  > improve the mathematical typography of TeX. I'm developping a big
>  > set of mathematical fonts (called mathdesign) and I'm quite aware
>  > of the problems of TeX in this domain.
>
>  > I've precise points in mind: mathematical accents, radical with
>  > left and right delimiters, and, of course, the insufficiencies of
>  > the tfm format. But you already know that better than me.
>
>  > So, this is my question: is it planned to improve some of these
>  > points in the future ?
>
>Yes, I think so.  See
>
> http://www.tug.org/pipermail/math-font-discuss/2005-May/000030.html
>
>But I don't think that someone will change the tfm structure. Anyway,
>there are plans to support OTF and maybe tfm files are not longer
>needed then (at least for OTF).
>  
>
i'm not so sure of that; maybe not tfm, but by means of primitives, we 
need to be able to tweak font/glyph characteristics; also, we nee dto be 
able to 'create new fonts or combinations of glyphs'; open type fonts 
may not be complete, not be suitable for a task etc; probably most open 
type fonts  can be used out of the box then, but  tex(ies) have a 
reputation of a need-to-tweak

Hans