[NTG-context] XeTeX questions

[Thomas A. Schmitz]

On Jan 21, 2007, at 5:51 PM, Mojca Miklavec wrote:

>
> I requested that feature in XeTeX and yet: it's now implemented in
> LaTeX, but not in ConTeXt. (When Adam became a father, sad times have
> started for fonts in ConTeXt ;)

Oh that's where Adam has been hanging out lately! I was wondering  
what became of him...
>
> Hmmm ... you can use OpenType fonts in XeTeX in a plain-TeX-way  
> like that:
> \font\a="[KalligraphiaLTStd]" \a
>
> But there's no high level interface for it yet. The relevant pieces
> are in font-ini.tex:
>
> %D For \XETEX\ we need to support a bit more:
> %D
> %D \starttyping
> %D \definedfont[{cmr10}  at 40pt] test
> %D \definedfont['cmss10' at 40pt] test
> %D \definedfont["cmtt10" at 40pt] test
> %D
> %D \definedfont[{cmr10}  at 40pt] test
> %D \definedfont['cmss10' at 40pt] test
> %D \definedfont["cmtt10" at 40pt] test
> %D
> %D \definedfont["Gentium" at 40pt] test
> %D \stoptyping
>
> But one would also need \definedfont["[KalligraphiaLTStd]" at 40pt] or
> a similar command (double brackets look ugly anyway) to pass the same
> font name to XeTeX. If some TeXacker knows how to fix the low level
> macros responsible for it ... ;)
> I was silently hoping that once that Taco or Hans implement the same
> feature in luatex, one of them would also fix the corresponding macros
> for XeTeX. My knowledge doesn't suffice for it.

OK, I see; thanks for clearing that up, Mojca. Since I have no  
pressing need, I guess I will leave it at that.

But since I know that you've done a lot of work on XeTeX in ConTeXt,  
I'd really like to know: what exactly can XeTeX do that would make me  
want to take a more thorough look at it? After a sometimes painful  
learning curve, I find it nowadays relatively easy to make my  
opentype fonts work in ConTeXt. I assume that once the integration of  
opentype in luatex is finished, this will be even more  
straightforward, giving us access to many opentype features. I'm just  
wondering if it makes sense to spend more time here or if the XeTeX  
project will be eaten by its own success, as it were, as most of what  
it offers becomes integrated into lua/metatex. If you can spare two  
minutes, I'd be very grateful to have your thoughts on this.

>
> Change it to \setcclcucx or wait until Hans uploads a new version ;)
>
> Mojca

Yes sorry, I saw your post on context-devel only after posting my  
question.

Thanks a lot!

Thomas