[tex-live] Install TeX Live 20130914 failed

[Philip Taylor]

Please, let this not get diverted into a Babel (or Polyglossia,
or any other high-level package) question.  It is far more
fundamental, and consists of (I think) several parts :

1) If a user installs TeX Live specifying

	Collections: all; packages: all; schemes: all

how does he or she ask the system for which languages \lang@<language>
is defined ?

2) If the user then wishes to add a language that is not pre-defined,
how should he or she go about it ?

3) If the language is one for which patterns do not currently exist,
and for which the user is unable to supply patterns, is it correct
(as Zdeněk suggests) that at the lowest level this is specified by
\language = -1, and if so, how should \lang at hebrew be defined in
order that \uselanguage {hebrew} has the desired effect ?

4) XeTeX provides additional functionality through \XeTeXlinebreaklocale
‹Locale ID›, which in this case would
be \XeTeXlinebreaklocale {he}.  Given that language.def is
under texmf-var/tex/generic/config/, this would suggest
that language.def is the /wrong/ place to add \XeTeXlinebreaklocale.
Where do XeTeX-specific tweaks to language.def go ?

** Phil.
--------

Robin Fairbairns wrote:

> Philip Taylor wrote :
> 
>>>                                  my question is about the
>>> lower-level support which comes bundled with XeTeX in
>>> TeX Live and which includes support for (e.g.,) Greek,
>>> Ancient Greek and Latin, but not for Hebrew, despite
>>> all collections/schemes/etc. being specified at install
>>> time.

> i tried running babel hebrew on tl2013 (updated an hour ago).
> 
> it tried to generate some bitmap fonts to typeset its results.  the
> first it tried doesn't (afaics) exist on ctan, so obviously it won't be
> in tex live.  there does seem to be a (lppl) font package, cjhebrew, on
> ctan but babel hebrew doesn't choose to use it.
> 
> we need a hebrew-speaking tex expert who's willing to sort this out for
> us.  complaining to tex live is a fruitless task, since it seems that
> no-one on the list (who's willing to post) knows hebrew.
> 
> i wonder if *anyone* knows how to make babel hebrew work...  (there are
> a few hebrew fonts on ctan, but none are mentioned in the babel stuff.
> babel-hebrew does mention several fonts, none of which appear on ctan.)
> 
> 

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