[luatex] Luatex primitive names

[Hans Hagen]

Heiko Oberdiek wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 09:29:50AM +0100, Hans Hagen wrote:
> 
>> Heiko Oberdiek wrote:
> 
>>> \directlua{...} generates an error message for older versions,
>>> because it requires a number for the lua state.
>>> In newer versions the number shouldn't be given, because it
>>> would cause a deprecation warning -- users always complain
>>> about warnings. Thus the version information is already
>>> needed at TeX level before switching to Lua.
>> we're talking of version 0.40 and onwards and the new syntax will be in 0.40
>>
>> we don't care about < 0.40 and macro package support before 0.40
> 
> LuaTeX 0.25 is part of TL 2008, thus it will be significantly present
> some time, probably years, if not decades.
>   Thus my concern is that using the syntax of version 0.40
> will generate a low level error message, that cannot be understood
> by the "normal" user, forcing him to ask in newsgroups and
> mailing lists or even go away from LuaTeX.

well, it depends on how something is advertised ... any luatex based 
package writer should be honest and tell the users that they should
update package(s) and engine in sync which is actually no big deal 
nowadays in tex live (and norbert has been doing that for context for a 
long time now)

also, i think that most < 0.40 users are low level code hackers anyway -)

> Good. My wish would be that the version is remembered in the manual,
> when the (class of) primitives has become stable.

that's indeed the idea; probably startign with 0.50 (around eurotex) the 
first stabilization will take place

Hans


-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                              | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------