[CCs appreciated, I'm not subscribed to debian-user.] I'm currently trying to figure out how to typeset French properly with LaTeX under Debian. Most everything seems to work properly if I use something like the following for my LaTeX file:
\documentclass{article} \usepackage{t1enc} \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} \usepackage[french]{babel} \begin{document} Insensiblement nous tombons dans des situations périlleuses, dont nous pouvions aisément nous garantir, mais dont nous ne pouvons plus nous tirer sans des efforts héroïques qui nous effaryent, et nous tombons enfin dans l'abîme en disant à Dieu : << Pourquoi m'as-tu fait si faible ? >> Mais malgré nous il répond à nos consciences : << Je t'ai fait trop faible pour sortir du gouffre, parce que je t'ai fait assez for pour n'y pas tomber. >> \end{document} However, hyphenation doesn't come out correctly. I get the following output from TeX: blp:~/frn420(0)$ latex \\nonstopmode\\input explication.tex This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1) LaTeX2e <1999/12/01> patch level 1 Loading CZ hyphenation patterns: Pavel Sevecek, v3, 1995 Loading SK hyphenation patterns: Jana Chlebikova, 1992 (explication.tex (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/article.cls Document Class: article 1999/09/10 v1.4a Standard LaTeX document class (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/size10.clo)) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/t1enc.sty) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/inputenc.sty (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/base/latin1.def)) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/babel.def (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/switch.def)) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/babel/frenchb.ldf Package babel Warning: No hyphenation patterns were loaded for (babel) the language `French' (babel) I will use the patterns loaded for \language=0 instead. )) (explication.aux) (/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/cyrillic/ot2wncyr.fd) [1] (explication.aux) ) Output written on explication.dvi (1 page, 768 bytes). Transcript written on explication.log. The "No hyphenation patterns were loaded for the language `French'" is the part that worries me. I've consulted the documentation on this issue, but it seems to say that if `french' is turned on in /etc/texmf/language.dat (which it certainly seems to be) then French hyphenation patterns should get loaded. Any suggestions? Thanks, Ben. -- "Whoever you are -- SGI, SCO, HP, or even Microsoft -- most of the smart people on the planet work somewhere else." --Eric S. Raymond