Re: microtype for texinfo

[pertusus]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2022 at 06:59:10AM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > As I said above, for the LaTeX output converted from Texinfo we use
> > quite a few packages to be able to output LaTeX that can express the
> > Texinfo formatting.
> 
> It's not necessary to obey any of the formatting command for LaTeX
> output, mostly the contents of '(texinfo)Global Document Commands'.
> If something isn't implemented we shouldn't think of it as a bug or
> as a missing feature.  It could be an impossible and never-ending
> task to get parity between texinfo.tex output and LaTeX output
> (or other output formats like EPUB 3, Docbook or HTML).

To me, we want two things in an output format.  First is cover as much as
possible the semantics of Texinfo, depending on the format possibilities.
And the second objective is that the output should look good within the
possibilities of the output format (or be customizable, as is the case
of HTML).

> We can easily avoid compatibility problems with LaTeX microtype
> and fonts by turning it off.  You've gone to the effort of
> implementing @microtype in LaTeX so I won't advocate taking the
> code out, but in principle, in the future if someone uses @microtype
> in their Texinfo document for texinfo.tex output but then this
> causes issues with LaTeX, then we could take the code out.

If the output is better with microtype on, we should try to have it on.
Also LaTeX is somewhat special, in that, in theory, it should be
possible to reproduce everything in texinfo.tex output because both are
using TeX underneath.  I fully agree that we could simply turn
microtypee off if is causes issues in LaTeX output, but my feeling is
that this is the symptom of something wrong being done with fonts
selection in the LaTeX output, not an issue with microtype as such.

-- 
Pat