[pdftex] xetex and pdftex

[Ulrike Fischer]

Am Fri, 4 Sep 2009 16:26:25 -0400 schrieb John Culleton:

> In theory xetex should be pdftex with enhanced font handling 
> capability. 

No, xetex is more like a combination of etex + dvipdfmx, enhanced
with some commands of pdftex, unicode support and font handling.

> Indeed xetex bypasses the whole mapping and tfm file 
> structures that we have lived with for so many years. 

It can bypass them, but it can also use them. 

> Even quotation marks cannot be created in the usual fashion. 

In case you mean through ligatures: Activate the tex-text mapping:

\font\test="Arial:+map:tex-text"

``abc''

--

\font\test="Arial"
\test
``abc''

--

\bye


-- 
Ulrike Fischer