[XeTeX] Re: Re: Fontspec feature request?

[Suki Venkat, [TnQ]]

> > I am trying to change the font in \mathit but there is no  
> > \setmathit in
> > fontspec.sty. So I tried:
> > \SetMathAlphabet{\mathit}{normal}{U}{Times New Roman}{b}{it}
> > but it didn't work for
> > \[\mathtm{α}=\mathit{α}\]
> > (where α is the UTF-8 coding for \alpha).
> > I found that italic didn't work in math-mode although it did work  
> > in the
> > text.
> >
> 
> I'm not sure if this is a particularly fruitful avenue of exploration  
> on your part. There's MUCH more complex stuff going on behind the  
> scenes to typeset maths than grabbing the appropriate glyphs from  
> Times New Roman or where-ever.

Yes in mathmode I know that these things happen:
(1) Operator-spaces on both sides of a operator;
(2) Fences grow to the size of it descendants;
(3) Limit operators grow in size and \displaystyle decides if its side
limit or under-over limit;
(4) I know that the fraction bar, over-bars, under-bars, under-braces,
square-root etc... are difficult to design.

In the mathmode you need exact glyph dimensions to do this, as JK was
explaining, this not provided in the font metrics, but can be calculated
using some programs, I suppose.
Fence construction in LaTeX is unsatisfactory, as it uses horrendous
pieces to assemble, instead of just geometrically stretching the fence-
glyph in the vertical direction.
It is also about time that the math is brought in line with text,
atleast to use some of the interesting OpenType font features and also
to bring it to confirm with unicode mapping.

>  But if your needs are very simple, you  
> might be able to get output that looks acceptable.
> 
> Anyway, there IS a way to set \mathit in fontspec (luckily, I  
> implemented it last version). It is taken as the italic form of  
> \mathrm, which is specified with \setmathrm.
> 
> At least, it should.

-it doesn't :( 

The \mathit works for ASCII characters but for UTF-8 (x3B1) it works in
the text-mode but not in mathmode (I cut the text in PDF and pasted it
to check- I found that \mathit{x3B1} shows-up as TimesNewRomanPSMT and
not TimesNewRoman-ItalicPSMT). I also checked it for OpenType font
"Warnock Pro" - just to be sure (see PDF attached).
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