[XeTeX] XeTeX in lshort

[Mike Maxwell]

On 9/29/2010 8:39 PM, Andy Lin wrote:
> lshort needs to be updated, not just because it's missing sections on
> Unicode and XeTeX. It's also working under the assumption that people
> will *need* to use the command line in order to process a document.
> This should be a concern to anyone who's looked at it recently.

I hesitate to jump in, but I think it's worth thinking about (and 
perhaps saying, in this lshort document) why someone would want to use a 
TeX-type program, as opposed to MsWord or some such.  I'm not convinced 
it's the right solution for everyone.  If all you're doing is writing a 
five page homework paper, for example, do you really need to typeset it? 
  By the time the prof marks it up for content (and maybe spelling), any 
typography is going to be obscured by the red ink.

Dissertations are, I think, different; but very few people wind up 
writing dissertations.

My own reason for getting into XeLaTeX is that we write multi-lingual 
grammars, the second of which was Urdu.  Trying to produce decent 
looking Urdu text is a stretch for anyone who isn't a calligrapher, so I 
think we had a good case for using XeLaTeX for typesetting.  (Probably 
the only other possibility would have been the Middle East version of 
InDesign.)

I suppose some people use *TeX because they like programming approaches 
to things.  (However, I've programmed in at least a dozen programming 
languages, and there are still design choices in *TeX that I scratch my 
head over.  But yes, Donald Knuth is much smarter than I am, so I'm sure 
there's a reason.)  Maybe a few people use it to produce greeting cards 
or wedding invitations or something.  Mathematicians too, maybe, but 
there aren't many of them around.

So: Who is the audience?  And who among the not-already-converted ought 
to be proselytized?
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu
         "A library is the best possible imitation, by human beings,
         of a divine mind, where the whole universe is viewed and
         understood at the same time... we have invented libraries
         because we know that we do not have divine powers, but we
         try to do our best to imitate them." --Umberto Eco