#165 Problem with \lastnodetype

[Anonymous]

Consider this xetex-lastnodetype.tex

A\showthe\lastnodetype %% 0 <-> char node

\begingroup

\font\x="[texgyrepagella-regular.otf]"\relax
\x

A\showthe\lastnodetype %% 9 <-> whatsit node???

\endgroup

A\showthe\lastnodetype %% 0 <-> char node

\bye

on running xetex xetex-lastnodetype, following console output results

xetex xetex-lastnodetype
This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.999991 (TeX Live 2019/W32TeX) (preloaded format=xetex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./xetex-lastnodetype.tex
> 0.
l.2 A\showthe\lastnodetype
                           %% 0 <-> char node
?
> 9.
l.9 A\showthe\lastnodetype
                           %% 9 <-> whatsit node???
?
> 0.
l.13 A\showthe\lastnodetype
                            %% 0 <-> char node
?
[1] )
Output written on xetex-lastnodetype.pdf (1 page).
Transcript written on xetex-lastnodetype.log.

The second \lastnodetype is 9, which is unexpected.

[David M. Jones]

A char_node can only hold characters from 8-bit fonts; text from native fonts such as OpenType fonts are stored in either a native_word_node or a glyph_node, which are subtypes of the whatsit_node, distinguished by subtypes of 40 and 42, respectively. One would need a \lastnodesubtype to identify those. That might be a desirable extension.