Re: [XeTeX] Proposal : that TeX engines generating PDF directly should be able to close the output file without terminating.

[Philip Taylor]

Thank you, Bruno/Ross, for that most useful suggestion.  I am delighted to confirm that with the following modification to "Hoi-An TA Menu (combine pages).tex", all works as intended : % !TeX Program=XeTeX-W18 \immediate \write 18 {XeTeX "Hoi-An TA menu (separate pages).tex"} \special {background cmyk 0.83 0.82 0.21 0.60} "XeTeX-W18" is a just-added custom addition to the command set known to TeXworks, and adds "--shell-escape" to the head of the parameter/qualifier string passed to XeTeX if it is called as "XeTeX-W18". I continue to believe that enhancing the PDF-generating family of TeX-derived engines to allow the output PDF file to be closed mid-job would be beneficial, but clearly it is not necessary in this case.  As to "make" files, I confess that I have always steered clear of them for two unrelated reasons : I find the "make" syntax more than a little opaque, favouring (as it does) brevity over clarity; I feel that, by eliminating the need to think about what one is doing (and why one is doing it), "make" is a potentially dangerous tool, and the more steps there are to a successful "make", the more dangerous it is.  OK, for two steps, as in this case, the dangers are minimal, but in general I prefer documented instructions that require one to think about what one is doing, what one has already done, and what one is about to do ... ** Phil.