[XeTeX] XeTeX documentation "initiative"

[Gareth Hughes]

David Perry wrote:
> 
> 
> On 9/10/2010 12:18 PM, Tobias Schoel wrote:
> 
>> When someone arrives at xelatex he has usually gone some way through the
>> tex/latex world already. (Mostly latex, I think.) You can safely suppose
>> that he has read and used:
>> - lshort
>> - one latex book (companion, texbook, ...)
>> - some further tutorials and package documentations he needed
> Perhaps I am the exception, but I never used TeX until recently because
> my work requires Unicode and OT/AAT support for both linguistic and
> high-quality typesetting purposes.  That also means I need fonts that
> LaTeX traditionally knows nothing about, so the ability to use any
> system font is also important.  I was delighted when I discovered
> Xe(La)TeX but had a long learning curve ahead of me.
> 
> On Windows, support for advanced typography, including things like
> stylistic alternates that can be important to scholars, typically
> requires a large financial outlay for programs like InDesign.  I suspect
> there are a number of folks who could make good use of Xe(La)TeX but
> don't have the background that Tobias suggests.  Let's not forget them.
> 
> David

Hear, hear, David! TeX and LaTeX are dominated by scientists because
they are more accessible to people who think naturally in programming
terms and like the TeX way of managing formulae and graphics. However,
XeTeX has a strong appeal to people working in different languages,
especially those that require bidirectionality or complex text layout.
Most of us coming from this angle have little or no previous TeX
experience, and thus need quite different things from the manuals.

I've become a bit of an evangelist for XeLaTeX in my discipline, but I
don't know of any straightforward manual that tells a complete novice
how to install the necessary TeX software and other tools on different
platforms. A no-assumptions introduction is hard to come by.

I would be happy to help with the writing.

Has anyone thought of setting up a wiki for collaborative editing and
for keeping everything up to date?

Gareth.