[XeTeX] xelatex and geometry

[Jonathan Kew]

On 26 Mar 2008, at 1:43 pm, Andreas Matthias wrote:

> Jonathan Kew wrote:
>
>> On 26 Mar 2008, at 10:25 am, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
>>
>>> So I would suggest to use
>>>
>>> \@ifundefined{XeTeXversion}{}{%
>>> \def\pdfoutput{1}%
>>> }
>>
>> That would almost certainly lead to breakage when other packages try
>> to check for pdfTeX-specific functionality by looking at \pdfoutput.
>
> But that's what geometry.cfg from the current svn-version does,  
> doesn't it?
>
>
> \@ifundefined{XeTeXversion}{}{
>         %% Use the "pdftex" driver (i.e., \pdfpagewidth,  
> \pdfpageheight) with XeTeX
>         \Gm at setdriver{pdftex}
>
>         %% make geometry.sty believe this is valid
>         \@ifundefined{pdfoutput}{
>           \newcount\pdfoutput \pdfoutput=1
>         }{}
> }

Yes, it is, and it's possible this will mislead other packages. But  
at least it makes \pdfoutput act as a count register, rather than  
\def'ining it as a macro, so the behavior will be closer to what  
other code expects. (Imagine a package that tests that \pdfoutput is  
not \undefined, and then tries to set it with \pdfoutput=1.)

Ultimately, there's no magic solution until all packages that are in  
any way driver- or engine-dependent are aware of all the possible  
engines and drivers. And of course that's a constantly-changing  
picture.....

JK