[XeTeX] LaTeX features in XeTeX

[Jonathan Kew]

On 22 Jan 2007, at 7:13 pm, William Adams wrote:

> On Jan 22, 2007, at 1:05 PM, Nicholas Wilson wrote:
>
>> So is xelatex another mode of xetex, or another programme I am
>> missing?
>
> xelatex is xetex after loading the LaTeX macro package / format. This
> is a pretty basic concept which should be explained by any LaTeX
> introduction/tutorial.
>
> The build-script should create this format....

I'm not sure if that's necessarily the case. But if you look in the  
existing installation scripts, you should find that they add entries  
for the "xetex" and "xelatex" formats to fmtutil's configuration file  
(fmtutil.cnf). Then -- assuming the xetex input files are in the  
texmf tree where they will be found -- you can use

   fmtutil --byfmt xelatex

to create the xelatex.fmt file. The xelatex "program" would just be a  
symlink to xetex; like other Web2C-based TeX programs, it loads a  
format file based on the name used to invoke the executable.

If you look at the "rebuild-formats" script from the XeTeX source  
repository, this may give you some pointers. I guess the whole TeX  
configuration setup may be a bit different in Debian Etch from that  
used in older teTeX systems or an off-the-shelf TeX Live, so I don't  
know the precise steps needed to put all the pieces together, or  
whether the existing scripts would work as-is, but I hope this at  
least gives some clues....

JK