[XeTeX] "Minimalist" TeX?

[Joseph Wright]

On 16/05/2012 05:38, C Y wrote:
> I have compiled xetex from the latest Git sources on sourceforge, and the build appears to have been successful.
> 
> Does the sourceforge Git repo of xetex produce a working (albeit minimal) TeX once compilation is complete?  (It didn't seem to in my quick test, but it's quite possible I didn't do something right environment wise...)  If not, is there documentation anywhere of what constitutes the minimal set of files that will allow an average LaTeX document to be typeset?
> 
> My interest is in building a "Minimalist" subset of TeX in situations where a system installation isn't present, but I've not had much luck locating documentation describing what constitutes a minimal-yet-functional subset of the TeX Live distribution.  Has anybody documented such a subset?
> 
> Thanks,
> CY

TeX is more than one program, so it's not as simple as grabbing 'source
for the binary <name>TeX' and compiling it.

For a minimal compilable set up, maybe take a look at KerTeX:
http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html
-- 
Joseph Wright