[OS X TeX] Plain TeX and OS X [slightly OT]

[William Adams]

Bruno said:
>- I was told (but never verified, as I don't have it) that Adobe 
>InDesign achieves about the same typesetting performances as TeX/LaTeX, 
>and even that it uses the TeX engine (or some part of it, maybe for 
>hyphenation) internally. 

One Adobe rep. with whom I've corresponded claimed that the ``HZ''
algorithm (from URW, which is a super-set of TeX's) ID uses as its
``multi-line composer'' has been completely re-written---but the
under-lying algorithm doesn't seem to've changed, so I think that's
rather disingenuous of them.

ID is lacking in long document features, and there's no internal
equation editor as-of-yet (this would be solved for us, if it just used
Services so that EquationService.app would work in it). Also, the UI is
typical Adobe, so I for one can't stand it.

>So again, this would make, if it's actually 
>true, TeX/LaTeX less indispensable (but still infinitely less expensive).

Before you say that, take a tour of a Word tech support group to listen
to the complaints / short-comings / difficulties involved in using Word
for much beyond letters, or find out how people're doing indexing &c. in ID.

William

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