Hi Otared,
On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:05:01 -0700, Otared Kavian
If a humble opinion from an ordinary user may be issued, I agree with Khaled that it would be extremely useful to have some basic default settings for Arabic fonts, and even more generally for any particular fonts used for other languages. This would not prevent those specialist typesetters who want particular features to be turned on, to do so through appropriate mechanisms.
sure, but it needs some thought. As I mentioned in my latest reply to Khaled, we can start with Scheherazade as an initial benchmark and proceed from there.
As a basic user I am frustrated when using mkiv, that most declaration of features are completely cryptic, and not being a specialist of OTF or other font specifications, I don't know which features are essential for writing and typesetting an article in Persian or any language using Arabic alphabet.
The difference -- I think -- is that xetex uses the system libraries. Uniscribe is not configurable, so you're stuck with however uniscribe interprets the ot features. <snip>
%\font\Faarsi=Scheherazade*CrypticFeatures at 14pt % this does not work
Hmm, I wonder why...
The ideal situation would be: • in a document, when one sets a language then a certain font, with certain standard features is set by default;
sure, I suggest Scheherazade
• when an adapted font for that language is defined by the user, then certain features are set by default;
that needs some research, for reasons Hans has explained.
• possibly a command like \setupArabic[state=start] [...=...,features=...] (and the analogous settings for other languages such as \setupHanzi[state=start][...=...,features=...], and alike), could be imagined;
sure
Therefore, in the same spirit one should have some default allowing the user to write \setupArabic[state=start] \setupHanzi[state=start] \starttext goedmorgen Hans! This is some maths formula: $a^2+b^2 = c^2$. And this is some Arabic text written and typeset from right to left, in the midst of some English text: \startArabic سلام خالد، درود بر ادریس \stopArabic
I understand that this can be done by each user upon defining his own environment and installing fonts, etc. But for the non specialist it is not that easy to understand the intricacies.
For now the focus is getting OpenType and the mid-level interface solid, then we can focus on the high-level interface as you have described. OTOH, Getting Scheherazade (or some other mutually agreed-upon font) set up as default with a high-level interface should not be that hard. سلام Idris -- Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief International Journal of Shi`i Studies Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523