texlive 2008/2009, hyphen pattern handling

[Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at>]

Hi everyone,

those of the old group -- if someone is still listening -- how should we
solve the following problem:

Up to TL2007 hyphenation patterns were only loaded into latex based
formats using language.dat. We ship language.dat snippets in
/etc/texmf/language.d.

Now, from 2008 on the full information for hyphens are in the tlpdb and
we generate language.dat AND NEW language.def (the config file loaded by
etex based formats, i.e., pdftex, luatex, etex, ...).

Now how do we handle that?

My idea was to:
- replace /etc/texmf/language.d/ with /etc/texmf/hyphen.d/<snippet>
- put the tlpdb line into the <snippet>
	AddHyphen name=french synonyms=patois,francais   lefthyphenmin=2 righthyphenmin=3 file=loadhyph-fr.tex
- create with update-language *both* config files language.dat and
  language.def from the information in the snippet.

The reason for switching from language.d to hyphen.d is that the format
of the files placed there changes completely, it is just a configuration
file that contains lines like the above.

Any other ideas? And if you agree, anyone willing and able to take a
look at update-fontlang script???

Best wishes

Norbert

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at>        Vienna University of Technology
Debian Developer <preining@debian.org>                         Debian TeX Group
gpg DSA: 0x09C5B094      fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOCHRANZA (n.)
The long unaccomplished wail in the middle of a Scottish folk song
where the pipes nip around the corner for a couple of drinks.
			--- Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff