[OS X TeX] non-english hyphenation in Plain TeX

[Tom Koornwinder]

On On 2 Nov 2004, Tom Koornwinder wrote to this list:
> On 21 Oct 2004 17:36:23 +0200, Gianluca Gorni wrote:
> > I have tried to migrate some old Textures PlainTeX documents
> > to TeXShop &co., and I have run into a couple of prolems.
> >
> > ...
> >
> > More important: I have not been able to activate the Italian
> > hyphenation. When I iInstalled gwTeX, I configured for Italian,
> > and in fact Italian *LaTeX* is fine. Perhaps PlainTeX was not
> > configured? Or was it? What shall I do?
> 
> I had similar problems with Dutch hyphenation in TeXShop.
> With a lot of effort, and with the help of Gianluca Gorni, Bruno Voisin
> and a script posted by Ros Moore (quoted in
> http://www.tug.org/pipermail/xetex/2004-April/000030.html )
> I managed to solve this problem.
> In order that other people can fix it in less time, I report my
> solution here.
> ...

Below is an updated version of what I wrote then as my solution.

Before doing the next steps, I had installed TeX Live 2007, TeXShop,
i-Installer, etc. from the MacTeX-2007 package, and I had installed
and configured the package "gwTeX based on TeX Live" from I-Installer.

Step 1.
In directory /usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.texlive/tex/plain/config
add in file language.def
after the lines

%%% Next section is      E X A M P L E   O N L Y
%%% \addlanguage {German}{ghyph31}{}{2}{2}   %%% further such lines may be used;
%%% Previous section is  E X A M P L E   O N L Y

the line

\addlanguage {dutch}{nehyph96.tex}{}{2}{2}

where {dutch}{nehyph96.tex} can be replaced by analogues
for other languages, see directory
/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.texlive/tex/generic/hyphen
for all available hyphenation files.
(By the way. the example ghyph31 in language.def is bad, because this file is
no longer available in the distribution. Present files for German
hyphenation are dehyphn.tex and dehypht.tex)

For doing this editing you may need to login as superuser
or use the sudo command.

Step 2.
Configure the package "gwTeX based on TeX Live" in I-Installer.
You will be asked: "Configure what".
Select "Languages Selection".
Then you will be asked "Initialize TeX".
Choose "Yes".
When the configuration is finished, you may check in directory
/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.local/web2c/pdftex
that in file pdfetex.log
the correct hyphenation patterns with \language 1 (and possibly 2, ..)
have been configured.
The format file corresponding to this log file is
file pdfetex.fmt in the same directory.

Step 3.
Make an executable file pdfetex.engine
in directory
~/Library/TeXShop/Engines
with the lines

#!/bin/sh
test -f "`kpsewhich pdfetex.fmt`" || fmtutil --byfmt pdfetex
exec pdfetex -fmt=pdfetex -progname=pdfetex "$@"

Step 4.
In TeXShop Preferences go to Engine and there
put under pdfTeX as your TeX Program 
pdfetex --shell-escape
and under TeX+dvips+distiller as your TeX Program
simpdftex etex --maxpfb

Now, under Plain TeX typesetting, any plain TeX file should produce its
hyphenation in the suitable non-English language after a line with
\language 1 (or 2, ...).

Possibly this will also work if you adapt one or both of the files
language.def in directories
/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/plain/config
and
/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-var/tex/plain/config
and then install TeX Live 2007 once more , but I did not check this.

                                  Tom Koornwinder

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