[luatex] Proposal to fix the namespace argument

[Arno Trautmann]

Will Robertson wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Yesterday I proposed a tidy way to resolve the tension between nice
> primitive names and problems with processing old documents where these
> new primitives may clash with users' macros.
> 
> I'd like to formalise the suggestion:
> 
> 1.  The LuaTeX team name the primitives whatever they please (personally
> I like the names they've chosen up until now).
> 2.  The LaTeX team or the TeX Live team maintains a luatexconfig.tex
> file that maps all new LuaTeX primitives to some sort of hidden
> namespace that is accessible by package authors.
> 3.  Probably Plain should do something similar.

I think, this is the best solution.

> Consequences:
> 
> 1.  Legacy documents are not affected unless they define macros in
> whatever namespace we choose to hide the LuaTeX primitives. (Let's
> assume this won't happen.)
> 
> 2.  luatextra.sty (say) will allow package writers and users to access
> the new primitives in some form; either by remapping them back to
> userspace names or with some other scheme.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Disregarding the details of how we hide the primitive names, what do you
> all think of this plan?

I like it.

> * * *
> 
> Is there a comprehensive list of primitives defined by LuaTeX? I've got
> a long list culled from the manual but I'm not sure if I caught them
> all. The list I've got is in the file luatexconfig.tex here:
>  <http://github.com/wspr/lualatex/tree/master>

One question: Why the _ as separator? I would have expected an @
instead. Is this already due to LaTeX3? Or just to avoid possible
clashes with package authors?

Arno

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