Re: MKIV, fonts, confusion

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

afsmith wrote:
> Luigi, Hans, and Wolfgang, thank you for your responses. I'm still
> unclear on several things. (comments on your responses follow
> afterwards)
> 
> Let me try asking these things as questions. Specifically, could
> someone please tell me...
> 1. How do I determine whether I am using MKII, MKIV, or XeTeX to
> process my documents?

\doifmode {mkiv} { ... }

\ifnum\texengine=\xetexengine .. \fi

mkiv only run son top of luatex (and the context command replaces 
texexec there)

> 2. Given the line from a typescript...
> \definefontsynonym[LiberationSerif] [name:liberationserif]
> .... how do I determine which file "name:liberationserif" corresponds to?

not relevant since name will sort that out (given that the name is ok)

> 3. In both MKII and MKIV, how can I determine which typescripts exist?
> In other words, how do I determine working arguments for
> "\usetypescriptfile"?

by looking at the file, but at some point i expect users to switch to 
mkiv so if mkiv works for your document, then forget about mkii

> 3b. Specifically, in the case of...
> \usetypescript[palatino][ec]
> .... in which typescript is this defined? (given a vanilla context
> minimals installation)

that one in type-one (type one font)

> 4. What defines the output of "fc-list" or "mtxrun --script fonts
> --list"? Do they correspond to files? Type synonyms? etc.

mkiv does not use fc-list and as fc-list does not work on my machine i 
have no clue

> 5. Do I need to bother with map files for MKII?

normally the typescript handles that

> 6. Is it particularly recommended that I use MKIV? How stable is it
> compared to MKII?

depends on your document; currently somewhat in flux due to 
reimplementing structure but that will stabelize

> Luigi, what do you mean by "and look into base/*"? Which 'base'? Are
> you talking about in the context minimals distribution? some specific
> online repository? I have seen the two documents you mentioned.
> Re-reading them has clarified things a little bit.

tex/context/base

> Wolfgang,
> Currently the module you linked to
> (http://bitbucket.org/wolfs/simplefonts/) is beyond my
> understanding... I would first like to understand the mechanism your
> module operates on before trying to automate it.
> 
> Hans,
> I am aware that there are such types of parameters that must be
> defined for fonts. I understand 'it is complicated' but this does not
> really help make things clearer to me. The inner workings of fonts are
> of little concern to me to me at the moment. Right now I do not even
> know where to look. I have seen the examples you gave for palatino,
> such as...
> \usetypescript[palatino][ec]
> ....but I have no idea where those arguments come from

well, palatino is defined in type-one

if ec makes no sense to you, then just use it (polish use qx, i use 
texnansi, etc ... it depends on the language you use and for english it 
hardly matters)

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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