[texhax] French Hyphenation

[davidjpenton]

Greetings.  I just recently joined TUG and hope to learn lots. This is 
my first post on this list, so if it is off topic for the list kindly 
point me in the right direction.

On the project I am doing at work we use TeX only incidentally.  The 
main print engine on the project uses the Antenna House XSL-FO engine. 
This engine uses the TeX hyphenation algorithm.  I am temporarily using 
Antenna House with a French hyphenation dictionary borrowed from 
OpenOffice, which also uses the same algorithm as TeX.  However, I need 
to improve this hyphenation dictionary.   The Antenna House engine 
requies that the patterns TeX hyphenation patterns be marked up in a 
specific form of XML.

I have looked at the French LaTeX hyphenation dictionary, and would like 
to borrow the patterns in, and mark it up in the XML format required by 
Antenna House.  The problem is, I don't understand coding TeX or LaTeX 
well enough to interpret the stuff in the French TeX/LaTeX hyphenation 
dictionary with any confidence.

Could anyone help me interpret the coding in the hyphenation 
dictionary?  Or, if someone knows some good reading that would help me, 
I would appreciate it.  I own two LaTeX books, and the hardbound Knuth 
series on TeX.  However, I would like to get this project done without 
learning it all from scratch, since I have a deadline to meet.

Any help is appreciated.

- Dave Penton -