[XeTeX] [luatex] Info on direction primitives/implementation

[Jonathan Kew]

On 5/12/12 11:56, Joseph Wright wrote:

> Right, so some more thinking required here. The question is what is
> sensible for new content: from what you say about TeX--XeT and bidi,
> using pdfTeX/XeTeX is not currently to be recommended for RTL work

IMO, this is an overly general and somewhat misleading "blanket 
statement". The TeX--XeT model has its limitations, certainly, but there 
are plenty of RTL documents for which it is perfectly adequate. Not 
every document requires mixed-direction math, or \special-based colour 
and hyperlinks wrapping across lines.

Back when I was doing typesetting on behalf of authors and publishers in 
Pakistan and elsewhere, we used (TeX--XeT-based) XeTeX with considerable 
success and without feeling at all constrained by its bidi shortcomings. 
But then, we were producing "traditional" printed books full of text, 
not colourful, hyperlinked PDFs full of math.

JK