[XeTeX] xdv2pdf vs xdvipdfmx

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jan 25, 2011, at 5:30 AM, Oleg Parashchenko wrote:

> Hello Herb,
> 
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:29:59 -0600
> Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
>> If I had to guess I would say that xdv2pdf is dead and there will be no
>> more work done on it.
> 
> Pity. Any ideas why it has happended? Does xdv2pdf have some fatal flaws,
> or does it a normal produciton-quality driver, which just lost competition
> to xdvipdfmx?
> 
> For my work, the use of MAC OS X PDF-generation API is an important
> feature, which I'd like to try to use. But first, I want to be sure that
> I'm not betting on a wrong horse.

Howdy,

Only guessing but I'm not sure but I'd guess that it is simply a matter of having to spend time maintaining the driver that is most useful to the most people (i.e., those using non-Mac platforms too) leaves little to no time for trying to maintain xdv2pdf. It has been a long time since I've used xdv2pdf.

> 
>> The xdvipdfmx back end is used on all platforms.
>> 
>> The pdfsync package has been superseded by synctex built into (e/xe/pdf)
>> tex; you need to set --synctex=1 as an option to (e/xe/pdf)tex
> 
> So, as I understand, synctex functionality does not depend on a driver?
> 

I'd guess that it does depend upon the driver but I'm not sure. I do know that it works with xelatex using the xdvpdfmx driver.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)