[XeTeX] fontspec v1.1

[Ross Moore]

On 19/10/2004, at 1:41 AM, William F. Adams wrote:

>
> On Sunday, October 17, 2004, at 11:31  PM, Will Robertson wrote:
>
>> Now that the week is starting, I thought I'd upload my recent efforts 
>> in my font package for XeLaTeX. Due to William F Adams revelation 
>> that my original name was taken, I've changed it to "fontspec", which 
>> I like perhaps even better than the original.
>
> That is better.
>
> Someone suggested a more specific name, which arguably has merit. I 
> like the idea of using a suffix, ``-ex'' or prefix ``xe-'' to indicate 
> the specific platform, with the idea that some point in the future 
> there'll be other suffixes / prefixes for similar capabilities on 
> other platforms.
>
> Say, suggesting it be put in:
>
> ctan:fonts/fontspec/xe-fontspec

I'm going to argue against that.

Is there anything specific to XeTeX in the package,
or is it just creating instances of a syntax for \font calls,
to request features in OpenType (and other) fonts ?

Such a syntax could easily be implemented also on other TeX
systems (though maybe they don't yet have the ability to
fulfill the requests).


Put differently, the logic of the package is to
"specify fonts" so that  fontspec  is a good name.
Tying it to XeTeX is unnecessary.

Also, it is not good for use in documents.
e.g.
   20 years from now, when everyone has full
support for OpenType, someone may want to reuse
old docs with  \usepackage{xe-fontspec} .
They have the fully evolved  {fontspec} package
which now works on all platforms, but those
old docs barf for the silliest of reasons.


So, having picked a good name, write good
documentation about *exactly* what it does;
that is, the syntax that it uses to request
font features.
That is what you would like others to adopt
as well, to get cross-platform compatibility.


>
> Just a quick thought.

Sorry my rebuttal is rather long.


Cheers

	Ross


>
> William
>
> -- 
> William Adams, publishing specialist
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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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