[luatex] macros to invoke lua in LaTeX

[Ulrike Fischer]

Am Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:19:15 +0100 schrieb Taco Hoekwater:

>> Not just right now, but at any time in the future: if a new primitive
>> \foo is introduced, any existing package that happens to use \foo is
>> potentially affected.  
> 
> This is the best argument ever -- for not developing luatex at all.
> 
> Until version luatex 1.0, we reserve the right to make any change.
> Because if we were to promise not to remove old primitives and to
> avoid adding conflicting primitives, you get exactly what you have
> already: pdftex. Which isn't going away.

Naturally luatex can add new primitives (and should do it) like 
pdftex has done it. And you will never be able to avoid that such a 
new primitive clash somehow. But nevertheless I think it would be 
very useful if the names of the primitives would use an uniform 
prefix -- even more as luatex is not stable and new primitives can 
arise or disappear again. Prefixes like \pdf of pdftex and \XeTeX of 
xetex create a simple namespace and enable package writers to avoid 
_future_ conflicts with new primitives simply by not using the 
prefix. 


-- 
Ulrike Fischer