[pdftex] Has anyone cpmpiled a windows version of the latest pdftex?

[George White]

Quoting Robert Howlett <rhowlett at mail.usyd.edu.au>:

> Recently, Reinhard Kotucha wrote to this list (in another context):
> " if you see how pdfTeX evolved the last few months, you can be quite 
> optimistic"
> 
> I would really like to be able to start using the latest version of pdftex,
> but being unable to compile a windows binary, it seems to me that I can't.
> In the good old days, when Thanh released a new version of pdftex he
> would release a binary for dos/windows. Later Fabrice Popineau , would
> do this.  Is their out there somewhere a kind person who is willing to 
> compile a windows binary and make it  publically available?

You can't just drop the current pdftex into any old TeX distro.

There have been changes in the texmf tree as well.  Earlier versions used
a configuration file (texmf/pdftex/config/pdftex.cfg).  Now the configuration
is done using a .tex file (/texmf/tex/generic/config/pdftexconfig.tex).
In the past many macro packages assume that (e)tex is used to produce .dvi
files, and check for the existence of a pdftex primitive.  Pdf(e)tex has
microtyopgraphic enhancements that can used to make .dvi as well, so if the 
pdftex primitives exist you have to check whether the output is set to .pdf or
.dvi.  This is handled by the ifpdf package, and many macro packages have been
updated to use this mechanism.

There is a windows binary and an installer in the beta for TeX Live 2005:
<URL: ftp://ftp.tug.org/pub/texlive/Images/test/>.  The late Sept. & early
Oct. test versions had only minor glitches, so this is a good time to find out
if it works for you.  One problem area is configuring editors (WinEDT, emacs).
Previous packages created registry entries as well as changes to the
environment.  The new installer only adjusts the environment.

-- 
George N. White III
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia