[texhax] [tex-live] Ftuture state of XeTeX in TeXLive

[Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd)]

[TeX Live list dropped, TeXhax added]

Ulrike Fischer wrote:

 > So a font loader should be written as a sort of library with clear API
 > which can be used by every format.

Amen.  And if other add-ons could follow suit, what an
enormous benefit that might bring.  Although, as regular
readers of the list will know, I do have philosophical
problems with LaTeX, I think that my severest criticism
is its monolithic nature : if you want to use any part of
LaTeX's functionality, you have to use the whole caboodle,
want it or not.  It is, unfortunately, almost certainly
too late to hope for a more modular approach, but if a new
font loader /were/ to be written, with a well-defined API,
callable from IniTeX, Plain TeX, LaTeX and Context (plus future,
as-yet undreamed-of formats), it /might/ encourage other
contributors to do likewise.

Philip Taylor