[tex-k] [comp.text.tex] web2c wish...

[David Kastrup]

Michael John Downes <mjd@ams.org> writes:

> David.Kastrup@t-online.de (David Kastrup) writes:
> 
> > The idea is to have an in-memory copy of LaTeX hanging around, or even
> > a document already run up to \begin{document}, that is eager to
> > process or reprocess a small document or a document part as fast as
> > imaginable.
> > 
> > Anybody better ideas or thoughts why this is not a good idea?
> 
> Saving and restoring global state seems troublesome? LaTeX counters are
> one example---I assume you would plan to do something to prevent first
> run of a small document having section numbers 1-4 and second run 5-8
> --- but there might be other problems of global state depending on your
> material.

What global state?  My proposal was to use the fork system call in a
more or less pristine state of LaTeX (either after reading in the
format, or even after reading the preamble): the forked process
modifies its own copies of the variables.  When it finishes, the
parent from which the forks are generated is still in pristine state.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
Email: David.Kastrup@t-online.de