[Dev-luatex] HarfBuzz [slightly off-topic]

[luigi scarso]

On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 10:03 AM, Patrick Gundlach <patrick at gundla.ch> wrote:
>
>
>> Concerning xml: build a binding for libxml  & libxslt with swig should
>> be easy; the API is stable, the library is well tested
>> and available for most platform. Perhaps already exists a lua binding
>> and  even an handmade binding is feasible ---
>> so why a fork of Luatex ?
>
> Because
> a) loading such a module into existing luatex binaries is impossible at the moment (see other mail),
> b) shipping one platform dependent file instead of two is less hassle and
> c) compiling only one source is much easier then compiling two or more sources.
>
Too much drastic.
Actually it's possibile to load  non-trivial library but not *all* library.
As you wrote in #555 with sqlite there are some problems, and I
believe  that with SWIG you can
solve them *without* touch the luatex source/building phase

> b) shipping one platform dependent file instead of two is less hassle and
> c) compiling only one source is much easier then compiling two or more sources.
Again shipping and compiling maybe can be better, but not maintenance.
A bug in xyz library will be a bug in luatex that the luatex team must
solve for all platform.

Even for libxml thare are some prons & cons: a xml-based  workflow
probably doesn't need the xml
side of luatex.
-- 
luigi