[XeTeX] Strange behavior with right-to-left footnotes

[François Charette]

Thanks Johathan for your quick and competent reply (as always :-) !

Jonathan Kew a écrit :
> You have encountered a bug in xetex. In certain circumstances, it  
>   
That's what I thought, but I tend to refrain from using the word "bug" 
too swiftly...
> handles glue incorrectly in right-to-left paragraphs. I've been aware  
> of this one for a while, but have not yet had time to track down the  
> underlying cause. I hope to fix it for the next release, though, as  
> it's a pretty annoying one if you run into it.
>   
...
> One way to work around the problem is to avoid the use of stretchable  
> glue in places like this, and instead write macros that actually box  
> and measure the text, and then generate the necessary kerns or  
> whatever. But that can be a pain compared to simply using \hfil or  
> \hss in appropriate places.
>   
Well, I'll rather wait for your bugfix in the next release, since this 
would involve patching the \@makefntext macro in all standard LaTeX 
classes, as well as memoir, koma-script, etc...
> You're seeing the problem with footnotes because the footnote macros  
> probably use something like \textindent or \llap or whatever,  
> involving stretchable glue, to place the mark within the indent  
> beside the paragraph.
>   
Yes, in standard LaTeX classes the footnote macro contains
\hbox to 1.8em{\hss\@makefnmark}.
The footnote macros in memoir.cls are more complex but the bug has 
basically the same effect. With the koma-script classes, though, the 
effect is as in Plain TeX.
> Sorry for the hassle; I'll try to work on it soon!
>   
Thanks a lot
شكراً جزيلاً

FC