[XeTeX] XeTeX documentation "initiative"

[Paul Isambert]

Selon John Was <john.was at ntlworld.com>:

> Hello
>
> I haven't been following the proposals in detail but it seems to me that the
> suggestions are overwhelmingly weighted in favour of XeLaTeX users - which
> is fine as long as someone is working on a plain XeTeX manual of comparable
> scope.  I don't use (Xe)LaTeX myself, and I think the applies to a number of
> regular contributors to this list - I still reach fo The TeXbook when I want
> to do something non-routine, and would hope that all the extra commands
> available in (plain) XeTeX might be documented in a comparably rigorous
> manner so that one isn't left to stumble across potentially useful features
> almost by accident.

There's at least Will's XeTeX Reference.

But I've been worried too about the visibility of plain TeX (which is rather
"do-it-yourself TeX"), and not only in the context of XeTeX (I use LuaTeX,
actually). I guess the situation might stem from the fact that plain TeX users
are generally able to solve most of their problems by themselves (since they
also /create/ them by themselves), so plain TeX is seldom discussed on lists.
Thus, LaTeX or ConTeXt users have few invitations to plain TeX, not to mention
total newbies.

I've been thinking for a while about some kind of plain TeX wiki, which would at
the very least list existing packages for plain, give example solutions to basic
problems (references, tables of contents...), and perhaps address more advanced
topics (e.g. the output routine, of course, but also OpenType fonts in LuaTeX,
etc.). The gist of the thing would be something like "total control of
typographic operations". I have no time to do it now, let alone build it from
scratch, but I'll consider it again somewhere in the future.

And but so I didn't mean to step on the XeLaTeX companion's toes, which must be
strong and unbreakable anyway :)

Best,
Paul