[tex-live] lambda, omega, latex.ini

Hans Hagen pragma at wxs.nl
Wed May 12 00:06:04 CEST 2004


At 14:38 11/05/2004, Thomas Esser wrote:

>I am sure that you can easily write a parser for pdftex (at macro level)
>that could even read the original map files (if the would exist in the
>texinputs search path) :-)

i actually did that once for another (forgotten) reason but hapilly removed 
the code; it may be in some old tex live -)

>Being a TeX macro programmer, you want everything in the texinputs
>path, sure. :-)

as macro programmer indeed, (i'm currently writing mostly scripts, and then 
the tds tree and searching can be a pain); for instance if fonts were in 
the texinputs path, then one could test for the presence of tfm files adn 
write more robust font systems; on the other hand, i cross my fingers with 
the current settings: if latex wouldn't use the 'sty' suffix, clashes would 
be more probable (in context i try to do restrictive searches but there are 
cases where problems may surface when files with certain names suddenly end 
up in the tree; i had that once with metapost and mpgraph.mp suddenly being 
present in the mp path)

here, i often split things up and use more paths, which is why my messy dev 
tree does not match tds;

you're lucky that i don't ask you to provide xmlinputs -)

which reminds me: we may need some place some day in tds where we put xml 
schema's (i really mean this; i now put them under ../tex); how to deal 
with suffixes and kpse is then tricky to sort our (xml, xsd, rng, ...); for 
instance, such files are not really tex files but will sometimes be read by 
tex; a bit like with graphics (eps bb parsing, pdf inclusion; and therefore 
related to texinputs;  the problem with schemata is that editors and 
parsers sometimes need them and the question is what will determine the path.

(some more control of what to read in can be reached with the next kpse lib 
esp when kpse searching can be controlled from within \input (relative 
paths, pathvar driven search and so; we really need that granularity: 
\input $xmlinputs//whatever.xml and so, but i'm told that it's coming; by 
that time i think we shoul dextend tex with a new input command as well)

Hans   



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