[XeTeX] [texworks] Overfull boxes return status of 0 in XeTeX

[Philip Taylor]

Jonathan Kew wrote:

> I assume TeXworks will run an AfterTypeset script whether the tool it's
> run exits with zero or non-zero code (won't it?).

As far as I can tell, from the combination of Stefan's reply and my own
observations of the behaviour of TeXworks, TeXworks runs such a script
(to determine the contents of the "Errors, warnings, badboxes" tab), IFF
the status returned by (Xe)TeX is non-zero.  If this is the case, then I
would suggest that this design decision was taken in the interests of
efficiency.  And whilst it would be grossly inefficient to run such a
script on an $n$-thousand line log file each and every time the source
code were compiled, the impact on the efficiency of (Xe)TeX if the
latter were to record all warnings (etc) until the end and then
determine on the basis of a user-set command-line parameter whether or
not to return a zero or non-zero status would be absolutely minimal.

Therefore I respectfully suggest that the correct place to make such a
change would be in the source code of the various extended TeX engines
(PdfTeX, XeTeX, whatever) rather than in each and every TeX front end.

** Phil.