[XeTeX] XeTeX, XeTeXpicfile, and counter-intuitive behaviour

[Zdenek Wagner]

2011/12/1 Paul Isambert <zappathustra at free.fr>:
> Le 01/12/2011 13:13, Philip TAYLOR a écrit :
>
>> P.S. But what about the fact that the \vfill \eject
>> is ignored if no text precedes the \XeTeXpicfile ?
>
>
> It seems to be a particular case of the situation where a \special is alone
> on its page. I don't know what TeX is supposed to do in such situation, and
> haven't time to investigate.
>
\special is not a discardable element, only glue, kern and penaly are
discardable. I made a tiny sample file:

\special{xxx}
\vfill
\eject
\bye

Both pdftex and xetex generate an empty page with number 1. It means
that \output is properly called. This means that \XeTeXpicfile is
handled in a strange way. IMHO it should be either \special (whatsit)
or bow in TeX eyes.

> Paul
>
>
>
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-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz