[luatex] Outdated Website

Paul Isambert zappathustra at free.fr
Fri Dec 6 16:52:25 CET 2013


I can't resist adding my grain of salt. Take it with yours :)

"Jan Tosovsky" <j.tosovsky at email.cz>:
> Btw, I also suggest slightly enhanced wording in the Welcome page -
> from user benefit perspective:
> Instead of 'LuaTeX is an extended version of pdfTeX using Lua as an
> embedded
> scripting language' with history and technical data to mention
> rather:
> LuaTeX is unique

Not so unique, the PDFTeX ancestry is no small part of it.

>                  command line

Man, you want to scare everybody? Especially Adobe addicts? Plus I'm sure many
TeX users do not even know how TeX is called (because it's hidden by their
editors).

>                               PDF converter

LuaTeX doesn't really convert anything; it produces PDF documents.

>                                             offering high quality
> typographic outputs comparable with Adobe InDesign,

Minus the eye-candy for Adobe/Apple addicts.

>                                     but with no costs.

And also free as in free software.

> While it takes only raw TeX82 format as an input,

No, it whines on non-UTF-8 files.

> when bundled with ConTeXt, TeX macropackage, higher level of abstraction
> can be utilized in your source documents.

Slightly unfair to people not using ConTeXt (and possibly misguiding to those
using e.g. PDFTeX and wanting to switch engines without switching formats).

> It supports Unicode, OpenType fonts,

Try using them with a bare LuaTeX :)

>                                      RTL and bi-di writing
> directions, inserting PDF or SVG files to mention a few...

... among which, scripting in Lua.

What you're trying to sell, so to speak, is more a format than an engine.
People interested in LuaTeX per se are interested in what it can do when
compared to other engines, not the promotional speech. People interested in a
good typesetting software will probably find ConTeXt or LaTeX first, and it is
worth telling them how wonderful those formats are, especially compared to
your usual word processor, but that's another niche, as it were.

In other words, to benefit the users (that was the point of your rewording),
LuaTeX must be adopted by programmers, and the basic description on the
website is intended for them (as far as I can tell, I'm not in charge of the
website).

Best,
Paul


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