[tug-summer-of-code] Project idea: LaTeX3 "microkernel"

[Jonathan Fine]

Hello Joseph

You wrote:
> I've proposed in various places a LaTeX3 "microkernel", and I wonder if
> this might be an interesting project for the Summer of Code.  The plan
> would be to write something based on the existing expl3 code which could
> typeset a minimal document:
> 
> \documentclass{minimal} % Or something similar
> \begin{document}
> \emph{Hello World!}
> \end{document}
> 
> without using LaTeX2e at all. A lot of the work would involve finding
> how to re-implement the LaTeX kernel in the expl3 syntax.

I'm often asked: When will MathTran support LaTeX?  The problem is that 
because MathTran uses a secure variant of the plain TeX format (so we 
can run TeX as a daemon), and so commands such as \def are stored in 
inaccessible locations such as \_def.

Is it possible that this project could be done in a way that produced 
something that would help MathTran support LaTeX?  As I recall, it took 
me about a week to create a secure variant of plain TeX.  I'd be really 
interested in a similar port of AMS math.

-- 
Jonathan