[tex-k] Re: [tex-live] Re: pdfeTeX as the only engine

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Staszek" == Staszek Wawrykiewicz <staw at gust.org.pl> writes:

    > In consequence we can just leave tex (for archeologists, like me ;-)

It's not only for archeologists, Knuth himself maintains the master
sources of TeX on a teTeX system.  

    > and pdfetex, and forget pdftex, etex etc. 

Yes.  Both, e-TeX and pdfTeX behave like Knuth's TeX unless you use
their advanced features.  Both programs are very reliable.

Macro programmers avoid e-TeX primitives because they make their
packages less portable.  Thus, I think, e-TeX should be the default.

pdfTeX with \pdfoutput=0 is even more interesting.  If I didn't
misunderstood something, the extensions (font expansion, character
protruding) are available even if it produces dvi.

I totally agree with you, there is no reason to have so many
programs doing almost the same.
 
    > with all those variants like ini... and vir...

You are not the only archeologist in the world...

Regards,
  Reinhard

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