[XeTeX] "new-babel", was: Ancient Greek hyphenation

[Will Robertson]

On 4/23/07, Bruno Voisin <bvoisin at mac.com> wrote:
>
> Will, I don't agree with you here: backwards compatibility is a
> requirement IMHO.
>
> If the mapping=tex-text mechanism hadn't been added to XeTeX,
> allowing to use older input files in a transparent way, I would never
> have considered using XeTeX on a daily basis.

I definitely agree here, but I think we're talking about backwards
compatibility in the fonts used, etc., rather than on the input. If
you'd like an analogy, you can keep writing \'e, but it will come from
a unicode font rather than a weird TeX encoded one.

Actually, maybe that's not such a good example, because I can't
imagine people wanting to write Russian with long streams of
\cyrx\cyry\cyrz...etc.

Similarly, transliteration encodings such as arabxetex should only be
available specifically if you want the backwards compatibility, I
think.

What goes from being a reasonably concise package description blows
out to infinity (like babel) if you want to include all of these
language-specific details. But no-one's taking responsibility for the
final product, yet, so we should certainly be changing our opinions as
we go!

As I see it, this package will be a framework for providing a language
syntax to LaTeX documents, performing at the very least a change in
hyphenation patterns and a hook for *whatever* else we wish to do
(mostly, change fonts and writing directions).

*All* else is optional, and can be implemented later. Even that small
amount (which shouldn't take too much effort to produce) would be
helpful at this stage, I think, allowing people to use their familiar
babel markup without the problems of assumed legacy font existence.

Cheers,
Will