[XeTeX] Re: [MacTeX] XeTeX

[Ross Moore]

Hi Bruno, and others

On 15/04/2004, at 4:20 PM, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> It appears that every font switch produces a "fclose: Bad file 
> descriptor problem" message, without affecting the output apparently.

My tests confirm this:
    the first usage of a particular font-switch generates the message.

That is,
   (i) if you define a switch for a  font face+style but don't use it,
       then there'll be no message;
  (ii) subsequent uses of the same switch do not generate an extra
       message.


> I think Ross has a better, more systematic, way of providing font 
> names to LaTeX, not using the \space command and based instead on 
> turning font names into commands:
>
> \expandafter\let\csname OT1+lugr\endcsname\empty
> {\catcode`\"=11\obeyspaces\gdef\LuGrande{"Lucida Grande"}}
> \DeclareFontShape{OT1}{lugr}{m}{n}{<->\LuGrande}{}

It's a little too `hacky' to become a "standard",
which certainly should take the correct encoding into account.

So how about this instead:

%
% this part can be used in Plain or LaTeX
%
{\catcode`\"=11 \obeyspaces%
    \gdef\Hoefl#1{"Hoefler Text#1"}%
    \gdef\ItalicShape{ Italic}%
    \gdef\BoldFace{ Black}%
    \gdef\SmallCaps{:Letter Case=Small Caps}%
}%

% this part follows established LaTeX syntax
% but using the above part to get the font string
%
\DeclareFontFamily{U}{hoefl}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{m}{n}{<-> \Hoefl{}}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{m}{it}{<-> \Hoefl{\ItalicShape}}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{bx}{n}{<-> \Hoefl{\BoldFace}}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{b}{n}{<-> ssub * hoefl/bx/n}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{bx}{it}{<-> \Hoefl{\BoldFace\ItalicShape}}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{b}{it}{<-> ssub * hoefl/bx/it}{}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{hoefl}{m}{sc}{<-> \Hoefl{\SmallCaps}}{}
\renewcommand{\encodingdefault}{U}
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{hoefl}


> By the way, is there a way to get A4 output from XeTeX? "xetex 
> -papersize=a4" produces no error message ("xetex -papersize=A4" or 
> "xetex -papersize=a4paper" do) but the output (= the margins) still 
> don't correspond to those expected for A4 paper.
>
>>   7.  support for  scaling/rotations/clipping etc. of imported 
>> graphics.
>>        How much of the \includegraphics  from  graphicx.sty
>>        can be supported, for a  xetex.def  driver file ?
>>
>> Given an interface via  \special syntax, I can write appropriate
>> driver files:  xetex.def   (for color/graphics)
>>           and  hxetex.def  (for hyperref)
>
> I think XeTeX's \picfile is not build upon \special, it uses its own 
> mechanism for including graphics.

That's OK. A driver file doesn't have to produce \special commands.
It should produce whatever works, to implement the ideas expressed
by the LaTeX commands + options.

>
> Regarding rotation, TeXgX, upon which XeTeX seems to be based, had a 
> command \rotbox, for rotating text, which is no longer present in 
> XeTeX, so maybe there is a problem for doing the same in XeTeX? (I 
> didn't use TeXgX myself, as I didn't install GX font technology on any 
> of the Mac I ever used, I just had a look at the TeXgX distribution 
> following the release of XeTeX.)



Given the current spurt of interest in XeTeX,
to the exclusion of the other Mac TeX applications,
maybe we should start a separate list to carry on
with further discussions and reports from testing.

What does everyone think about this ?


Cheers

	Ross


>
> Bruno Voisin
> _______________________________________________
> MacTeX mailing list
> http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/mactex
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                         ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                             office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                               tel: +61 +2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia                                  fax: +61 +2 9850 8114
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