On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 04:29:18PM +0100, Paul Isambert wrote: > Le 30/10/2011 13:20, George N. White III a écrit : > > On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Khaled Hosny <khaledho...@eglug.org> > wrote: > >> Writing an OpenType layout engine is not a simple task, and you can > >> judge from the many years it toke FOSS community to have a really good > >> one, HarfBuzz (the name luaotfload is misleading, font loading is about > >> the easiest part of luaotfload, OpenType implementation is really what > >> matters.) If it were for me, I'd plug HarfBuzz into luatex proper and > >> call it a day, but this does not align well with the "design" principles > >> of luatex so it is unlikely to happen. > > > > If plugging harfbuzz into luatex does not require a huge effort, it could > > serve as bridge from xetex to luatex while a more principled design > > is being created. Principles are nice, and have benefits over the long > > haul, but in cases where the design is evolving it really helps to get > > an implementation into the hands of users and let them point out the > > areas where work is needed. > > As far as I can see, the principles behind LuaTeX are pretty clear; it > offers tools, not solutions. Sometimes that makes it apparently slow-witted, > like TeX itself, because it refuses to implement solutions that seem > successful elsewhere. But one shouldn't forget that (Lua)TeX is an > extremely sophisticated typographic system, and that flexibility is an > integral part of it. Using HarfBuzz would probably offer a simple solution, > but you'd lose what makes LuaTeX so worthwhile. > > Best, > Paul
What is so "worthwile" on cripling one scripting language with another one? P. -- Petr Tomasek <http://www.etf.cuni.cz/~tomasek> Jabber: but...@jabbim.cz ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EA 355:001 DU DU DU DU EA 355:002 TU TU TU TU EA 355:003 NU NU NU NU NU NU NU EA 355:004 NA NA NA NA NA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex