[tex-live] libertine wrongly packaged

[George N. White III]

On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 6:41 PM, Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org> wrote:
>    > For the record, the general problem of xetex and xdvipdfmx finding
>    > different fonts comes up repeatedly.
>
> My point was that, IMHO, it is a bug for xetex and xdvipdfmx to find
> different fonts.  Ever.  Regardless of anything else.

Such bugs are inevitable when you use intermediate "device-independent"
files a) because the post-processor run may be separated in time/space/OS,
and b) because the font handling by the two programs will tend to diverge
over time.   There have been dead-tree workflows where the fonts used for
the typesetter are known only to the post-processor, with "screen" fonts
are used for viewing dvi files.

In a cross-platform workflow one expects to substitute fonts, so xetex and
xdvipdfmx finding different fonts can be necessary and required behaviour.

The bug is not providing better warnings for cases where the font used by
xdvipdfmx is not an adequate substitute.

>    it is the question if such fonts should actually be in a texmf tree.
>
> I strongly disagree with your implication.  When a document uses system
> font lookups, it is unportable by definition.  I don't think that is a
> good scenario to encourage.

Your view makes sense if all you require is dead tree artifacts, but there
are many cases where output from TeX needs to work with other tools
that do use system fonts.    Y&Y TeX and xetex were both created to
address this need, became popular, but eventually suffered from the
difficulties in keeping up with changes to the system.   Tools with system
dependent hooks are a necessary evil.   One should not expect them to
endure.

In general, TeXLive gets whatever developers are willing to provide,
so there will always be rough edges and some users will encounter
them.   You can't herd cats but you can put a dish of food where you
want them to end up.  I suppose that means finding more open ways for
users to do things that presently are thought to require system features.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia