[XeTeX] A question regarding 7bits versus 8 bits encoding and fonts

[Damlamian, Alain]

Hello everyone.

I am still new to XeTeX, and am a user of TeX but no wizard at it at all.
I have been doing some testing to see if I can import my previous 
files created with Textures under OS9 (I was informed of a new 
upcoming version for OSX, but will not be able to afford it, I guess!)

My files were created using the \input tex8bits, so that accented 
letters are recognized in the source and appear as the proper 
accented letters in the output. But my files also contain some OS9 
fonts.
This why I turned to XeTeX under TeXShop.

tex8bits.tex did not function with TeXShop, probably due to some 
encoding error. I managed to use a modifed copy of 8bitdefs.tex (the 
original of which was sent to me by Bruno Voisin (from the TeX on OSX 
mailing list).

Here is a sample file:


%%%%%% BEGIN FILE %%%%%%

%!TEX TS-program = xetex
%!TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode
\magnification 1400
\input 8bitdefscopy.tex
éàüîê
  éàüîê
\bigskip
\font\zap='Zapfino' at 16pt
\font\KuenstlerB='KuenstlerScript/B' at 16pt
\font\Kuenstler='KuenstlerScript' at 16pt
\zap Test
*áaáaá   \'e
\Kuenstler Test
*áaáaá  \'e
*\end
%%%%%%%%%%% END FILE %%%%%%%%


Here is the problem for which I would love to have a solution (other 
than using some outside processor to convert every accented letter to 
its 7bit equivalent).

When typeset as above, the first accented letters (in CMR) do not appear.
The Kuenstler or Zapfino accented letters are OK.

If I take out the encoding (i.e. revert to Roman), the CMR accented 
letters are OK, but the Kuenstler or Zapfino accented letters appear 
without accents.

Is there a way to have both work?

Incidentally, if I use the Roman encoding, the old 7 bit method for 
accented letters does not work for both Kuenstler and Zapfino under 
either UTF-8 Unicode or Roman.
For Kuenstler, nothing appears in both cases. With Zapfino, under 
Roman, nothing shows but under UFT-8 Unicode, the plain unaccented 
letters show.
I understand the last behavior is due to the fact that Kuenstler is a 
7 bit font, where as Zapfino is a unicode font.
Because of this behavior, converting my accented letters in the 
source to old style 7 bit code would not really work (except that I 
think there are no non- CMR accented letters in my source file...)

Thanks for any help.

Alain


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Prof. (Mr) Alain Damlamian    		  	   damla at univ-paris12.fr
			       alternate addresses: alain at damlamian.org,
						     alain at damlamian.net
  Université Paris 12 Val de Marne
  94010 Créteil Cedex, France
  eFax 	+1-425-977-7513                   (depuis la France 08 26079915)
  tel: office +33-(0)1 45171653          	   mobile +33 6 07564935
________________________________________________________________________
      Laboratoire d'Analyse et de Mathématiques Appliquées
				CNRS UMR 8050
	Universités de Marne-la-Vallée et Paris 12 Val-de-Marne
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