[XeTeX] arabxetex vs. xepersian

Gareth Hughes garzohugo at gmail.com
Mon Oct 4 21:53:13 CEST 2010


Axel Kielhorn wrote:
> Am 03.10.2010 um 22:41 schrieb Gareth Hughes:
> 
>> ArabXeTeX does a similar job to Polyglossia when it comes to font
>> set-up and commands for language change. However, ArabXeTeX
>> specialises in using input in Latin transliteration to render
>> Arabic. It is designed to work with the various languages that use
>> Arabic-derived scripts. I don't find this that useful (though I
>> know some do, and respect their preference), seeing as I can enter
>> both Arabic and the Latin diacritics needed for scientific
>> transliteration in Unicode.
> 
> If I understand it correctly, latin input is just an option. It will
> be processed by TECkit into Unicode.

Yes, it has a very nice implementation of TECkit. Of course it's an
option, but it's a major feature available in ArabXeTeX.

>> XePersian does something completely different. It adds some
>> valuable tools that refine Persian typesetting. It adds /kashida/
>> justification and Persian-language aliases for commands (it's
>> annoying to have to change script/keyboard and text direction to
>> enter commands).
> 
> I now see that kashida is xepersian only, I need to mention that.
> 
> I remember a discussion about using kashida in other languages as
> well but haven't seen anything in the documentation.

Fr Michael Gilmary adapted Jonathan Kew's code for Syriac, and I'm
including that in my forthcoming Syriac package.

Gareth.


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