On Wed, 2017-12-27 at 15:44 -0700, Alan Braslau wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Dec 2017 22:44:50 +0100
> Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > On 12/27/2017 7:01 PM, Alan Braslau wrote:
> > > 
> > > Why is the \vec{} arrow too short in some cases?
> > > Compare $\vec{X}$ to $\vec{Y}$.
> > > 
> > > The MWE below looks wrong in the default font
> > > and is even uglier when pagella is used.
> > > 
> > > Alan
> > > 
> > > 
> > > %\setupbodyfont [pagella]
> > > 
> > > \starttext
> > > $\vec{X}$ vs. $\vec{Y}$
> > > \stoptext
> > As this is has been the logic in tex font design for more than 3 
> > decades, there's not much that we can do about it apart from patching 
> > the font (doable but somewhat nasty and boring as we then need to
> > patch specific elements of (each) hvariant and it falls in the
> > category "hard to motivate myself for").
> > 
> > \showglyphs
> > 
> > \starttext
> >      \start
> >          \dorecurse{50}{$\vec{\blackrule[width=#1pt]}$\space}\unskip\par
> >      \stop
> >      \blank
> >      \start
> >          \switchtobodyfont [pagella]
> >          \dorecurse{50}{$\vec{\blackrule[width=#1pt]}$\space}\unskip\par
> >      \stop
> >      \blank
> >      \start
> >          \switchtobodyfont [cambria]
> >          \dorecurse{50}{$\vec{\blackrule[width=#1pt]}$\space}\unskip\par
> >      \stop
> > \stoptext
> > 
> > Shows that it's a font design issue: the extensible has a threshold 
> > related to the middle part and it should (1) have at least one more 
> > fixed size, or (2) have one fixed size and for the rest be extensible 
> > but that would be somewhat inefficient ion most cases, so (3) here we 
> > have a trade-off.
> > 
> > Just blame the font ... cambria is (of course) ok.
> > 
> > Hans
> Even Computer Modern!
> 
> Do you mean to tell me that the TeX Gyre fonts are all "broken"?
> And that the *only* correctly working font is ... Cambria?
> 
> So following up on the font discussion at the last ConTeXt meeting,
> must we conclude that *all* of the fonts that we distribute with the
> Standalone are to be avoided, and that one must pilfer the MicroSoft
> font in order to typeset mathematics correctly?

Lucida OpenType looks okay (if you have it).

\setupbodyfont[lucidaot]
\starttext
$\vec{X}$ vs. $\vec{Y}$
\stoptext

> 
> Alan
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