From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:20:12 +0200
From: tlaronde@polynum.com
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
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	<20110616173759.GA5598@polynum.com>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] [RFC] fonts and unicode/utf [TeX]
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On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 11:43:28AM -0700, Bakul Shah wrote:
> > Modifying TeX to accept utf as input (I mean the compiler/interpreter=
 by
> > itself; not macros), converting to rune and then using 16 bits =E0 la=
 math
> > mode to switch inside a font family to the "correct" 256 vector is
> > something that, for a first step, seems to me both reasonable and
> > simple.
>=20
> What about XeTeX?  It is a merge of TeX with Unicode and
> modern font tech.  Works with OpenType Fonts.

I will give it a look. The decision will depend on:

	1) The licence: if it is GPL, I will not touch it even with a long
	spoon...
	2) If the core modifications are separated enough from the kpathsea
	and so on dance.
	3) The nature of the solution.

There is another program I have to give it a look: John Hobby has given
me the information about an evolution of his MetaPost. It is original
AT&T and LGPL, so for the licence it's OK. For the modifications, I will
have to look.

So just to say that I'm not discarding existing solutions by principle.=20
If XeTeX does answer correctly---to my taste---to the problem, why not?

But since there is now almost only the lost needle in kerTeX, I will not
add back hay.

And just for the record once more: LaTeX can work with kerTeX; so even
the unicode.sty hack Russ Cox wrote about can work with kerTeX. User has
all the rope he can dream of...
--=20
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
Key fingerprint =3D 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C