[XeTeX] XeTeX for Linux (first experience's)

[Peter Heslin]

Yves Codet <ycodet at club-internet.fr> writes:

> Maybe I'm perverted by Sanskrit; as far as I know, no edition of 
> Sanskrit texts ever introduced etymological patterns which are totally 
> unknown in Sanskrit manuscripts. 

I do not see what relevance Sanskrit practice has for Greek.  Each
language has its own typographical norms.

> So I'm inclined to think that "grhyph.tex" patterns aren't wrong; some
> people care about etymological patterns, some don't (which is my case,
> particularly if manuscripts don't use etymological breaks). 

The practice of scribes in writing manuscripts is not relevant, except
for the purposes of historical investigation.  The relevant norms are
the standard procedures according to which ancient Greek texts are
usually typeset today.

> One could argue that hyphenations like ὑπε-ραλγῶ are misleading, but
> only for beginners (and maybe beginners who are still mislead by such
> hyphenations should study handbooks, not texts :). That's why I think
> it would be a good things if users had the choice between etymological
> and non etymological patterns, according to their taste.

This distinction between etymological and non-etymological hyphenation
in Greek is not recognized anywhere that I know of: all authorities of
which I am aware say that compound words should be hyphenated between
the components.  There is admittedly a difference of opinion over what
to do when there is an elision between components, but on this matter
Filippou's patterns follow the most widely recognized authority: the
Academy of Athens.

Your terminology unfortunately might tend to give users the impression
that there was a genuine and widely recognized distinction between two
different schools of practice.  This has particular potential for
confusion, since for the English language there genuinely exists a
distinction between two established traditions in Britain and America,
one of which hyphenates according to etymology and the other according
to pronunciation.  This is not the case with Greek.

By all means distribute your patterns if you wish, but please try not to
give the impression that they reflect an established school of
typographical practice.  As with most matters of typography, individual
"taste" is something that should only be indulged when you know
extremely well what the rules are that you are breaking.

-- 
Peter Heslin (http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.heslin)