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\environment musings-style

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\startchapter[title={Don't use \TEX !}]

Occasionally I run into a web post that involves \LUATEX\ and it is sometimes
surprising what nonsense one can read. Now, I normally don't care that much but
there are cases where I feel that a comment is justified. Partly because I'm one
of the developers, but also because I'm involved in user groups.

In this particular case the title of a (small) blog post was \quotation {Why I do
not like luaTeX!} and the website announced itself ambitiously as \quote {DIGITAL
TYPOGRAPHY NEWS}. Normally I assume that in such a case it is a general site
about typesetting and that the author has not much experience or insight in the
already ancient \TEX\ typesetting system. However, the \URL\ is:

\starttyping
eutypon.gr/e-blog/index.php/2021/02/13/why-i-do-not-like-luatex/
\stoptyping

which happens to be the Greek User Groups portal. So why do I feel the need to
reflect on this? Why do I even care? The answer is simple: because user groups
should inform their (potential) users correctly. Another reason is that I'm
involved in the program that is disliked, and yet another one is that there is a
suggestion that language support is bad in \LUATEX, while actually hyphenation
patterns are very well maintained by Mojca and Arthur who are also actively
involved in the community around the mentioned engine.

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Let's start with the title. For sure one might not like a specific program, but
when it involves one of the mainstream \TEX\ engines, it should at least be clear
that it's a personal opinion. Because no name is mentioned, we can assume that
this is the opinion of the Greek user group as a whole. The text starts with
\quotation {Most people speak with good words about luaTeX.} and the \quote {most}
in that sentence sort of puts the author in a small group, which should trigger
using a bit more careful title. Now I know a couple of users who use \LUATEX\
(with \CONTEXT) for typesetting Greek, and we can assume that they are among the
people who speak those good words: typesetting Greek just works.

More good news is that \quotation {They seem to like things it can do that no
other TeX derived systrem can do.} This might invite potential users to take a
closer look at the system, especially because we already know that most people
are positive. In 2021 one should keep in mind that, although the \LUATEX\ engine
is around for more than a decade, the level of support can differ per macro
package which is why \PDFTEX\ is still the most widespread used \TEX\ variant:
much \TEX\ usage relates to writing (scientific articles) in English so one
doesn't really need an \UNICODE\ engine. I always say: don't change a good
working workflow if you have no reason; use what makes you feel comfortable. Only
use \LUATEX\ if you have a reason. There is plenty of good and positive advice to
be given.

With \quotation {Personally, I do not care about these features but yesterday a
friend told me that he wanted to write something in Greek with luaLaTeX.} the
author steps over his or her personal rejection of the engine and enters the
help|-|a|-|friend mode. \quotation {And what’s the catch, one may ask. The
problem is that luaLaTeX does not load any hyphenation patterns but the default
ones. So one needs to load them.} I'm not sure why this is a catch. It actually
is a feature. One drawback of the traditional \TEX\ engines is that one needs to
preload the hyphenation patterns. Before memory was bumped, that often meant
creating format files for a subset of languages, and when memory became plenty it
meant preloading dozens of patterns by default. The good news is that in all
these cases the macro package takes care of that. In the case of \LUATEX\ no
patterns need to be preloaded so it might even be that \LATEX\ doesn't have any
preloaded but, not being a user, I didn't check that.

This all makes the next sentence puzzling: \quotation {In TeX one uses a command
like the follolwing one : \type {\language\l@monogreek}, where \type
{\l@monogreek} is numerical value assigned to each language contained in the
format.} Now, I'm no expert on \LATEX\ but I'm pretty sure that the \type {@}
sign is not a letter by default. I'm also pretty sure that there is some high
level interface to enable a language, and in the case of \LUATEX\ being used that
mechanism will load the patterns runtime. I bet it will also deal with making
sure other language specific properties are set. Therefore the \quotation {This
is well documented in the TeXbook.} is somewhat weird: original \TEX\ only had
one language and later versions could deal with more, but plain \TEX\ has no
\type {\l@monogreek} command. It doesn't sound like the best advice to me.

Just to be sure, I unpacked all the archives in the most recent \TEXLIVE\ \DVD\
and grepped for that command in \type {tex} and \type {sty} files and surprise:
in the \LATEX\ specific style file \typ {/tex/xelatex/xgreek/xgreek.sty} there is
a line \typ {\language \l@monogreek \else \HyphenRules{monogreek}\fi} which to me
looks way to low level for common users to figure out, let alone that it's a file
for \XETEX\ so bound to a specific engine. Further grepping for \type {{greek}}
gave hits for \LATEX's babel an there are Greek files under the \type
{polyglossia} directory so I bet that Arthur (who once told me he was reponsible
for languages) deals with Greek there. Even I, as a \CONTEXT\ user who never use
\LATEX\ and only know some things by rumor (like the fact that there is something
like polyglossia at all) could help a new user with some suggestions of where to
look, just by googling for a solution. But explicitly using the \type {\language}
primitive is not one of them. Okay, in \CONTEXT\ the \type {\language [greek]}
command does something useful, but we're not talking about that package here, if
only because it relates to \LUATEX\ development, which as we will see later is a
kind of inner circle.

So, picking up on the blog post, in an attempt to get Greek working in \LATEX\
the author got online but \quotation {Now despite the fact that I spent a few
hours searching for information on how to load specific hyphenation patterns, I
could not find anything!} It might have helped to search for \type {lualatex
greek} because that gives plenty of hits. And maybe there are even manuals out
there that explain which of the packages in the \TEX\ tree to load in order to get
it working. Maybe searching \CTAN\ or \TEXLIVE\ helps too. Maybe other user
groups have experts who can help out. No matter what you run into, I don't think
that the average user expects to find a recipe for installing and invoking
patterns. Just for the record, the \LUATEX\ manual has a whole chapter on
language support, but again, users can safely assume that the macro package that
they use hides those details. Actually, if users were supposed to load patterns
using a unique id, they are likely to end up in the modern Greek versus ancient
Greek, as well as Greek mixed with English or other languages situations. That
demands some more in depth knowledge to deal with, in any macro package and with
any engine. You can add a bit of \UNICODE\ and \UTF-8\ or encodings in the mix
too. Suggesting to consult the \TEX book is even a bit dangerous because one then
also ends up in an eight bit universe where font encodings play a role, while
\LUATEX\ is an \UNICODE\ engine that expects \UTF\ and uses \OPENTYPE\ fonts.
And, while languages seem to be a problem for the author and his|/|her friend,
fonts seem to be an easy deal. In my experience it's more likely that a user runs
into font issues because modern fonts operate on multiple axis: script, language
and features.

Maybe the confusion (or at that time accumulated frustration) is best summarized
by \quotation {Moreover, I could not find any information on how one loads a lua
package (i.e., some external lua package that is available in the TeX
installation).} Well, again I'm sure that one can find some information on
\LATEX\ support sites but as I already said: language support is so basic in a
macro package that users can use some simple command to enable their favorite
one. So, when \quotation {People know that they can load a LaTeX package with the
\type {\usepackage} command but I have no information on how to load lua code.}
the first part is what matters: \LUA\ files are often part of a package and
thereby they get loaded by the package, also because often stand|-|alone usage
makes not much sense.

It is absolutely no problem if someone doesn't like (or maybe even hates)
\LUATEX, but it's a different matter when we end up in disinformation, and even
worse in comments that smell like conspiracy: there is an inner circle of
\LUATEX\ developers and \quotation {Practically, this means that if one is not
part of the inner circle of luaTeX developers, then she cannot really know what
is really going on.} Really? Is this how user groups educate their users? There
are manuals written, plenty of articles published, active mailing lists,
presentations given, and there is support on platforms like Stack Exchange. And
most of that (the development of \LUATEX\ included) is done by volunteers in
their spare time, for free. Of course the groups of core developers are small but
that is true for any development. History (in the \TEX\ community) has
demonstrated that this is the only way to make progress at all, simply because
there are too many different views on matters, and also because the time of
volunteers is limited. It is the end result what counts and when that is properly
embedded in the community all is fine. So we have some different engines like
\TEX, \PDFTEX, \LUATEX, etc., different macro packages, specialized engines like
those dealing with large \CJK\ fonts, all serving a different audience from the
same ecosystem. Are these all secretive inner circles with bad intentions to
confuse users?

The blog post ends with \quotation {And this is exactly the reason why I do not
like luaTeX.} to which I can only comment that I already long ago decided not to
waste any time on users who in their comments sound like they were forced to use
a \TEX\ system (and seem to dislike it, so probably are better off with Microsoft
Word, but nevertheless like to bark against some specific \TEX\ tree), who
complain about manuals not realizing that their own contributions might be rather
minimalistic, maybe even counter productive, or possibly of not much use to
potential users anyway. I also ignore those who love to brag about the many bugs,
any small number suits that criterium, without ever mentioning how bugged their
own stuff is, etc. If your ego grows by disregarding something you don't even
use, it's fine for me.

So why do I bother writing this? Because I think it is a very bad move and signal
of a user group to mix personal dislike, whatever the reason is, with informing
and educating users. If a group is that frustrated with developments, it should
resolve itself. On the other hand, it fits well in how todays communication
works: everyone is a specialist, which get confirmed by the fact that many
publish (also on topics they should stay away from) on the web without fact
checking, and where likes and page hits are interpreted as a confirmation of
one's expertise. Even for the \TEX\ community there seems to be no escaping from
this.

The objectives of \TEX\ user groups shift, simply because users can find
information and help online instead of at meetings and in journals. The physical
\TEX\ distributions get replaced by fast downloads but they are definitely under
control of able packagers. Maybe a new task of user groups is to act as guardian
against disinformation. Of course one then has to run into these nonsense blogs
(or comments on forums) and such but that can partly be solved by a mechanism
where readers can report this. A user group can then try to make its own
information better. However, we have a problem when user groups themselves are
the source of disinformation. I see no easy way out of this. We can only hope
that such a port drowns in the ocean of information that is already out there to
confuse users. In the end a good and able \TEX\ friend is all you need to get
going, right? The blog post leaves it open if the Greek text ever got typeset
well. If not, there's always \CONTEXT\ to consider, but then one eventually ends
up with \LUAMETATEX\ which might work on the author as another \quotation {\nl
rode lap op een stier} as we say in Dutch.

\stopchapter

\stoptext

