[texhax] MS Word & Mathtype to TeX

[Boris Veytsman]

PT> Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:11:53 +0000
PT> From: Philip TAYLOR <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>


PT> and the key lies in "entering extended mode".  This is
PT> not LaTeX with TeX as its kernel but with e-TeX as its
PT> kernel; a good thing, surely, but not necessarily "as
PT> expected".

Well, TeXLive team made this announcement several years ago:


    \subsubsection{2004}

    2004 saw many changes:

    \begin{itemize}

    [...]     

    \item \textsf{pdfetex} is now the default engine for all formats
    except (plain) \textsf{tex} itself.  (Of course it generates \acro{DVI}
    when run as \textsf{latex}, etc.)  This means, among other things, that
    the microtypographic features of \textsf{pdftex} are available in
    \LaTeX, \ConTeXt, etc., as well as the \eTeX\ features
    (\OnCD{texmf-dist/doc/etex/base/}).


    [...]


    \end{itemize}

So this is the design decision of the distribution authors, and this
behavior IS expected at least by those who read documentation
[disclaimer: I myself do not read all the documentation, but since I
translated TL guide to Russian, I've read it].  

One can quote various reasons for this decision, but I was convinced
by the following one: novice users may appreciate the fact that
microtypography and etex extensions work "out of the box".  If someone
needs "original Knuthian TeX", he or she is probably a more
sophisticated user, who can easily generate the required formats using
the tools provided by the distribution.

Note that pdfetex satisfies the trip test, so all documents that can
be typeset processed with the Knuthian tex CAN be processed by pdfetex
and give exactly the same result (the opposite is, of course, not
necessary true, as you point in your letter).

-- 
Good luck

-Boris

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served
the family nothing but leftovers.  The original meal has never been found.
		-- Calvin Trillin