[tex-hyphen] dehyph-exptl v0.20 RC1 (experimental German patterns)

[Stephan Hennig]

Mojca Miklavec schrieb:
> 2009/6/15 Stephan Hennig wrote:
>>
>> The pattern files are meant for inclusion into the hyph-utf8 package.
>> I'd be happy to see that happen magically :) (after the release) with
>> the proper renaming.  Swiss patterns still suffer Babel (and
>> Polyglossia?) support, but they should be in hyph-utf8 nonetheless, I think.
> 
> I happily leave the pattern naming decision to Arthur.

OK.


> Stephan: what are your plans about babel/polyglossia?

For us, there are no plans concerning those packages, actually.  We're
just providing the patterns and if anyone adds support for Swiss German
to those packages, the patterns are readily available.


> Do Swiss German patterns need their own entry in TeX Live/MikTeX
> configuration as well?

Preferably, yes.  Hyphenation conventions differ slightly between
Germany and Switzerland and that requires three modifications (that I'm
aware of; all Eszett-related):

1. Short-cut "s should never expand to ß, but always ss.

2. Short-cut "S is not required for Swiss Standard German.  But if it is
used, it should hyphenate as S-S, not -SS or SS-.

3. Another short-cut is required for a tripple-consonant-s (that is
valid in Swiss Standard German) with proper \discretionary inserted,
analogous to "ff, "ll etc.  Would it be possible to use "ss for that
even though "s is already used?


> If the answer is yes: should one wait for Babel/Polyglossia
> support first before adding a new entry?

I'd think so, but I have no insight into Babel/Polyglossia development.


> Adding the patterns to hyph-utf8 is not too strictly related to adding
> an entry to TL. We can add the patterns in any case, it's just the
> question of ease of use.

Even if Swiss patterns are not accessible from hyph-utf8 for TeX (they
are through the dehyph-exptl package at least), the patterns are there
for non-TeX applications, such as OpenOffice, FOP etc.

Best regards,
Stephan Hennig