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Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:47:23 +0200
From: tlaronde@polynum.com
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] [RFC] fonts and unicode/utf [TeX]
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On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 09:14:10AM -0400, erik quanstrom wrote:
> > But, as the present state allows the use for every character set that
> > fits in eight bits, by using (for Plan9 users) tcs(1) to feed TeX wit=
h
> > what it expects, I will not delay forever the release of 1.0 waiting =
for
> > this next solution.
>=20
> good grief.  how hard is it to write this code!?  this bit depends on j=
ust a
> few simple functions from the plan 9 c library and that can be easily
> appropriated, namely chartorune and fullrune, and a user-defined getc.
> (not compiled, just dashed off.  just an example of how easy this is.)

This is easy just for input. But as I said, constraining to only the
first 256 bits will render TeX unusable for other 8bits sets (latin2,
etc.).

Would starting with an ASCII character set and guessing the character
set from the first not ASCII code (and remaining in this state)
work? And what will be the interaction of for example the LaTeX
macro-definitions, that handle re-encoding out of my reach?

The place where to put the conversion is (thanks to D.E.K.)
well identified. The problem is that (I speak now about going from byte
to wyde), this has an inpact on macro-d=E9finition, and this is useless i=
f
there is not the adequate font support.

So limiting the input for now to a subset of Unicode will only be a
(superficial) convenience for the users of this subset and forbid the
use of TeX to others. Trying to guess the 8 bits character set could
lead to some surprises (and I'm reluctant even temporarily to introduce
some KERTEX_CS to specify the character set).

And extending at least to whatever left-to-right can not be confined
only to the input/output convention, but some surgery (even if I
want it limited) must be put in the guts of TeX.

So for now, I will complete the fonts; fix what I wanted to fix
(essentially so that if D.E. Knuth had the need to reinstall his
software, he could have the 5 minutes solution at hand); give a look at
the newer version of MetaPost. And after 1.0 will be another day.
--=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