[texhax] inconsistency between pdftex and tex
Philip TAYLOR [PC87S-O/XP]
P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk
Fri Oct 17 18:05:08 CEST 2003
P.S. The simplest form of the wording that I can find
is in Don's "TeX.web", where he writes :
"[T]he official name `\TeX' by itself is reserved
for software systems that are fully compatible with each other.
A special test suite called the ``\.{TRIP} test'' is available for
helping to determine whether a particular implementation deserves to be
known as `\TeX' [cf.~Stanford Computer Science report CS1027,
November 1984]."
I would argue (indeed, I do!) that the key phrase here is
"software systems that are fully compatible with each other";
by deliberately interpreting a leading comment as a pragmat,
the software earlier cited is behaving in a manner which is
/not/ compatible with Knuth's reference version, and therefore
should not be called "TeX".
** Phil.
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