[XeTeX] [tex-live] Ftuture state of XeTeX in TeXLive

Paul Isambert zappathustra at free.fr
Sun Oct 30 18:16:19 CET 2011


Le 30/10/2011 17:20, Petr Tomasek a écrit :
> On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 04:29:18PM +0100, Paul Isambert wrote:
>> Le 30/10/2011 13:20, George N. White III a écrit :
>>> On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Khaled Hosny<khaledhosny at eglug.org>
>> wrote:
>>>> Writing an OpenType layout engine is not a simple task, and you can
>>>> judge from the many years it toke FOSS community to have a really good
>>>> one, HarfBuzz (the name luaotfload is misleading, font loading is about
>>>> the easiest part of luaotfload, OpenType implementation is really what
>>>> matters.) If it were for me, I'd plug HarfBuzz into luatex proper and
>>>> call it a day, but this does not align well with the "design" principles
>>>> of luatex so it is unlikely to happen.
>>> If plugging harfbuzz into luatex does not require a huge effort, it could
>>> serve as bridge from xetex to luatex while a more principled design
>>> is being created. Principles are nice, and have benefits over the long
>>> haul, but in cases where the design is evolving it really helps to get
>>> an implementation into the hands of users and let them point out the
>>> areas where work is needed.
>> As far as I can see, the principles behind LuaTeX are pretty clear; it
>> offers tools, not solutions. Sometimes that makes it apparently slow-witted,
>> like TeX itself, because it refuses to implement solutions that seem
>> successful elsewhere. But one shouldn't forget that (Lua)TeX is an
>> extremely sophisticated typographic system, and that flexibility is an
>> integral part of it. Using HarfBuzz would probably offer a simple solution,
>> but you'd lose what makes LuaTeX so worthwhile.
>>
>> Best,
>> Paul
> What is so "worthwile" on cripling one scripting language with
> another one?

I don't understand your (I suppose) rhetorical question. Do you mean 
crippling TeX with Lua? If that's how you see LuaTeX, I think there 
isn't much we're going to agree on.

Best,
Paul


More information about the XeTeX mailing list