ptex (was Re: [OS X TeX] Kanbun (漢文) and French...)

Jean-Christophe Helary fusion at mx6.tiki.ne.jp
Sun Jan 4 05:43:50 EST 2009


On dimanche 04 janv. 09, at 19:06, Peter Dyballa wrote:

> Am 04.01.2009 um 02:37 schrieb Jean-Christophe Helary:
>
>> Besides, I could not find ptex in MacTex. Am I missing something ?
>
> No, no! The tex and latex binaries are useful for millions of Latin  
> script users, while ptex could be useful for one or two billion  
> people that use CJK scripts. It's a small difference (and TeXShop is  
> prepared for it). Could be it's also a licenses issue: pTeX was  
> developed by a newspaper, I think. And pTeX can use OT fonts!

:) I am starting to think that instead of trying to get kanbun to work  
with TeX/LateX/XeteX, I'd be better off trying to get French to work  
with ptex. I've seen numerous pages on the web about issues of  
encoding, but it seems the CJK people have solved them all.

Regarding the license, it seems they have changed from a "free for non- 
profit" to the really free BSD license, in 2002.

http://www.ascii.co.jp/pb/ptex/base/intro.html

Since ptex is free enough for Debian, I suppose it is free enough for  
TeXLive isn't it ?

http://packages.debian.org/etch/ptex-bin

>>>> But I am still struggling to property display French...
>>>
>>> I'll send you privately a file that *will* do!
>>
>> I received the file (this morning). Thank you very much.
>>
>> Currently here is what I am using. I suppose that is the smallest  
>> preamble possible for my text, and I'm fine with it for the moment:
>>
>> \documentclass{article}
>> \usepackage{fontspec}
>> \usepackage[french]{babel}
>> \setmainfont{Times}
>> \newcommand{\cjk}[1]{{\fontspec[Scale=0.8]{Hiragino Mincho Pro}#1}}
>
> The latter statement is not OK, even when it's from Jonathan Kew.  
> Every time you use it a new instance of this font is created –  
> instead of referencing the original declaration.

Are you refering to this command in your mail:

   \newfontfamily\Kanbun[Scale=MatchUppercase,Script=Kana]{Hiragino  
Mincho Pro W3}
   \DeclareRobustCommand{\J}[1]{{\Kanbun #1}}




Jean-Christophe Helary




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