[XeTeX] OT?: Interesting? post about LuaTeX on usenet:comp.text.tex

[Hans Hagen]

Will Robertson wrote:
> On 11/08/2006, at 1:33 , Jonathan Kew wrote:
>
>> But in another sense, there are only two (not three) "platforms"
>> currently targeted by XeTeX: one that uses Apple Type Services to
>> access fonts, and one that uses Fontconfig.
>
> I'd guess it's this latter that they're leery of using. Or perhaps 
> they really haven't looked that closely at the Linux release (although 
> that would surprise me) and were frightened off by all of the mention 
> of Mac OS X frameworks around the earlier releases.
>
>> Oh, and XeTeX uses the same OpenType layout code (from ICU) on all
>> platforms.
>
> I don't think there's anything to be gained from completely 
> re-implementing OpenType support from scratch. Well, no point 
> preaching to the converted :)
>
> Do you mind if I ask if there is or has been much communication 
> between you all? How active is the tex-implementors mailing list?
jonathan and the pdftex people occasionally meet at tex conferences; about the tex-implementers list ... close to dead in this respect and i think that both teams have too much fun doing their dev job to be bothered by abstract discussions; actually, pdftex and xetex are both examples of succesfull extensions done by a small group of dedicated people who just want something being done; my experience with the tex community is that too much discussion (1) stalls and (2) kills developments

Hans  

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