Indexing fonts

[Peter Flynn]

On 22/01/2023 13:16, Norbert Preining wrote:
> Some comments:

Thank you, this is most valuable.

> The paragraph after the CM introduction/set in CM starts with
> 
> 	LATEX also comes with the *** There are some extra fonts
> 	generously donated ..
> 
> This is not understandable to me.

Nor me :-) Actually that was a placeholder for a headcount of typefaces 
in TeX Live. Being fixed.

> ----------
> Concerning
> 	$ kpsewhich --expand-var '$TEXMFSYSVAR'
> I suggest the simpler
> 	kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFSYSVAR
> since no quoting is needed.

Oooh. I didn't know that one. Being fixed.

> ---------
> Concerning the activation of all fonts from TL for fontconfig.
> I know that we have the file TEXMFSYSVAR/fonts/conf/texlive-fontconfig.conf
> but my personal experience is that activating all fonts via that file
> can be rather dangerous. I had fontconfig crashing on me on some fonts
> (not sure if this is still the case, though)

I haven't had that, and my 09-texlive.conf covers both TL font 
directories and system font directories. Did fontconfig crash while 
indexing or when in use by XeLaTeX?

> ---------
> Concerning Exercise 6.2
> I would throw in
> 	/usr/local/share/fonts
> since quite some people install their fonts there

Good point.

> --------
> Last comment:
> 
>> first-time user, who is possibly not a very savvy computer user.
> 
> I have the feeling that the level of detail is not really for "not
> very savvy computer users and first-time LaTeX users".
> There is a lot of stuff in there.

There is indeed. Almost all of it comes from questions raised over the 
years in classes, in email, on texhax, the Google group 'LaTeX Users', 
some from c.t.t. and tex.stackexchange, and more recently from Discord. 
It's quite hard to know where to draw the line and risk omitting 
something vital, or swamping the reader in stuff that's not needed. 
There is a list of prerequisite knowledge at 
http://latex/formattinginformation/introduction.html#skills which is all 
ECDL-level. Maybe I need an Abstract for each section that gives the key 
stuff in 3–4 lines.

Peter