[XeTeX] XeTeX in lshort

[Tobias Schoel]

Am 26.09.2010 20:11, schrieb Khaled Hosny:
> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:26:47PM +0200, Marco wrote:
>> Axel Kielhorn<A.Kielhorn at web.de>  writes:
>>
>>> Hello!
>>>
>>> Some weeks ago I suggested getting information about XeTeX into lshort.
>>>
>>> Well, here is the first draft.
>>> In order to process it, you will need the lshort-4.31 source distributed with TeXLive 2010
>>> (or available from a CTAN mirror of your choice).
>>>
>>> I want to limit this to the essential steps to get a document processed by XeLaTeX.
>>>
>>> I am open for suggestions and corrections (Note that I am not a native speaker.)
>>>
>>> My plan is to submit this to Tobias later this year.
>>>
>>> Axel
>>>
>>>
>>
>> > From the text:
>>
>>> Some editors support digraphs, two letters that are combined into on
>>> character. (In \wi{Vim} \texttt{ctrl-k o:} will be transformed into an
>>> \"o, \texttt{ctrl-k JA} will created the mirrored R used by a russian
>>> toy store chain.)\marginpar{How do you do this in emacs?}
>>
>> Emacs has a whole set of various "Input methods", including a TeX method
>> that mimics the traditional TeX syntax for letters with accents and
>> diacritics. Sure you want to enter this topic? ;-)
>
> Exactly, I don't see the point of discussing input methods in such a
> short document; if I want to enter Unicode text I surely know a way to
> do so or I can look for it in my editor/OS documentation.
>
> Regards,
>   Khaled
>

Agreed. But one should at least give a reference link to information 
about how to input Unicode in Windoof, OS X and Linux respectively. 
There is no advantage in telling the people in lshort: "There is also 
XeLaTeX, which lets you input everything in unicode and use any OpenType 
or TrueType font on your system.", if you don't tell them how to do this 
or at least where to find information about it. These people will simply 
say: "What the heck is Unicode again? I simply press the keys on my 
keyboard."

The "usual" Windows user has no to hardly any knowledge of input methods 
other than what he is used to. Consequently he won't see any advantage 
of _being allowed to_ enter any unicode character, if he isn't _able to_.

ciao

Toscho

PS: That said, I recall a anecdote, when an absolute Windoof and MS 
Office user had to use my Laptop running Ubuntu and Open Office for live 
beamer protocol. He first wondered, why he couldn't enter an e-acute by 
pressing the acute-key and then the e-key. Later he wondered, why 
couldn't enter all uppercase words by pressing Caps-Lock. And lastly he 
wondered, why some strange symbol appeared, when he tried Caps-Lock again.