[XeTeX] babel

[Zdenek Wagner]

2012/9/4 Philip TAYLOR <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>:
>
>
> Zdenek Wagner wrote:
>
>> I know that French uses tiny spaces preceding double punctuation.
>> IMHO it should be a property of a font, not of a typesetting system.
>
>
> Presumably you mean "a user-selectable property" rather than a static
> property (one would not want to have to switch font in order to change
> language, in most cases).  But does this not then suggest that every
> extant Western font would have to be modified to include this optional
> feature, f such fonts are to be used for French)   Surely, on that last
> basis alone, a font-independent solution is to be preferred.
>
Not the font, only the language. Here luatex has an advantage that
such features can be injected via lua without changing the font (if
you know how to do it). I prefer this way because active characters
may break some macros, eg a macro may expect an argument delimited
with : with category 12 but if it is made active for French
typesetting, this macro will not work. Some languages in babel make ^
active so that \^ could be input in an easier way. In such a case ^^ab
does not work. TeX requires two characters of category 7. The
definition of active ^ is quite clever and expands to ^ with category
7 in math. However, ^^ab is processed in TeX's mouth, expansion of the
active ^ occurs too late, thus it is not easy to handle it on the
macro level. That's why I do not like active characters, mere adding a
babel module for another language may break the document. However,
sometimes active characters cannot be avoided and sometimes they make
life easier.

> Incidentally, thinspace before tall punctuation was also common in
> British typography until a few decades ago, and some "typesetters who
> care" still follow the same convention.  To my eye, it is far more
> pleasant than the crowded punctuation that is only too common these
> days.
>
I found it in some old Czech books but it was thinner than in French.

> Philip Taylor



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