[luatex] Luatex primitive names

[Robin Fairbairns]

Heiko Oberdiek <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de> wrote:

[cogent arguments omitted]

> BTW, from the experience of the history of pdfTeX, I would like
> some version information in the LuaTeX manual:
> * Mapping \luatexversion -> official LuaTeX version number
> * Version information for each feature/primitive, when
>   it was introduced and when changes occur.
> It would help macro programmers to write robuster code
> without studying old announcements and logs of the version control
> system.

fwiw, i agree (with all of it).  the trouble is, it's not me that has to
be persuaded, it's taco.  unfortunately, taco has said that there's no
point attempting backwards compatibility on a beta; he apparently
believes that such small additions to his workload are enough to rule
them out.

which is sad.  i've experienced this sort of pressure, from (as it were)
taco's side, in the past (i don't do much software development any
more).  i know one has to draw a line somewhere, but i am sad that
taco's line isn't where _i_ believe is the ideal.

robin