[tex-live] Bad .cfg files in TeX source tree?

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 02:00:31PM +0000, Jonathan Kew wrote:

> Packages like this that test the engine and configure their back-end  
> accordingly need to be updated to support xetex; in many cases, this  
> will just mean checking for the xetex engine (e.g. using ifxetex.sty)  
> and activating the same code as for pdftex. I haven't had time to  
> pursue this with all the package maintainers, though (and until xetex  
> became part of mainstream distributions, the incentive to support it  
> in standard packages wasn't so strong, either).

But TeX Live is a mainstream distribution, isn't it?

> The .cfg files in the xelatex tree were created as a workaround to  
> get xetex-unaware packages to use the right (pdftex-like) back-end;

Then at least try finding another workaround.
Otherwise there will be lots of bug reports, eg.:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{hyperref}% assumes now that pdfTeX is running in PDF mode
\usepackage{ifpdf}% same assumption
\ifpdf
  ...% this would be executed
\else
  ...
\fi
\begin{document}
\end{document}

But the best solution is, if the packages can be updated.
Otherwise we can start writing answer robots for the time
after TL2007 is out.

> they're not the proper permanent solution, but they've been in use  
> for a while now I'm not aware of any reported problems (yet!).

I expect that the number of users of XeTeX will increase,
if TL2007 is released.

> If we can add a test for xetex, and the appropriate driver setup,  
> into standard "global" cfg files for these packages, that would be  
> preferable.

I have done so for color.cfg and graphics.cfg and updated
hyperref.

> Then the ones in the xelatex subtree could be removed.

Yes, color.cfg, graphics.cfg, and hyperref.cfg can be removed there.

Yours sincerely
  Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>