[luatex] Hash tokens meaning

[Hans Hagen]

On 5/28/2013 1:39 PM, Arthur Reutenauer wrote:
>> Since I am not a TeX user, I compared the "LaTeX output/under the
>> hood" to an object file.
>
>    That comparison clearly doesn't work at this point.  Let's just move
> on.
>
>> I have tried, but it's not like what I expected.
>
>    Who would have guessed ...
>
>>                                                   I know how to walk
>> through a program in source code, because that's what I'm accustomed
>> to: I find LaTeX's source code very different, I find myself
>> wandering around without any clear and sharp indication on a "main".
>
>    You need to get rid of your misconceptions about programming, first.
> latex.ltx is a "program in source code" too, if you expected it to look
> different, you need to change your expectations and learn about this way
> of programming.  Many languages don't need a "main" at all; you seem to
> come from an imperative programming point of view, but that's not the
> only one.
>
>> I guess I will read the TeX book, first.
>
>    Probably one of the best choices.

Another option is buying a real big hard disk, start the document with 
\tracingall (top of file), have a coffee break (or take a walk, or read 
tex-by-topic), locate the log file, find an editor that can load this 
beast and start deciphering what happens in there. Best take a real 
document, with proper font usage and lots of structure, lists and 
referencing as well as some interactive features.

Looking at the hash is rather useless as figuring out the expansion 
chain is non trivial (comparable to reading assembler, cpu instructions 
or bytecode). Looking at a traced log at least gives an impression of 
what *happens* which is a good first step.

(I didn't really follow this thread, but tex usage is normally layered: 
primitives, basic helper code, macro package, user code, and subsystems 
like those for fonts can be pretty big and complex and one needs to 
understand a bit about what typesetting and such is about in order to 
get the picture.)

Hans

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