[luatex] plain LuaTeX

[Robin Fairbairns]

Hans Hagen <pragma at wxs.nl> wrote:

> [...]
> the problem with extending plain is that in order to let it stay plain
> one cannot mess around too much with redefining

indeed.

> \newcount\attdefcounter
> 
> \def\newattribute#1%
>   {\global\advance\attdefcounter\plusone
>    \global\attributedef#1\attdefcounter}
> 
> is probably the best solution as we cannot use the regular allocation
> infra structure without breaking expectations about behaviour of the
> first 20 counters etc
> 
> there are a few more issues, like using > 256 registers and using
> chardef instead of mathchardef in for instance box allocation
> 
> i can cook up a new allocation set if needed (some trickery is needed
> to get around the inserts and so)
> 
> on the other hand, plain users probably never exceed the 256 limits
> simply because the plain spec says so

pragmatically speaking (and who better to respond to, pragmatically ;-))
i would suggest that *even if* we imagined plain tex users to be
champing at the bit for new facilities, they're surely not likely to be
willing to accept such fundamentals from other people?

so i'd say, go for hans's "simple" version, above.

robin