[tex-eplain] Thank you Laurence for glyph_test example; eplain won't load compatible packages

[Laurence.Finston at gmx.net]

> ASIDE: Thanks again, Laurence! Though your glyph test isn't very long, there are several plain-TeX techniques which are exactly some of the things I wish to learn (custom paper size, font-loading).

I took a look through the TeX files included in my webpages for 3DLDF, but none of them are particularly complex from the point of view of typesetting.  They mostly just include graphics.  For the past 20 years or so, for any writing, I've either used Texinfo or the TUGboat macros.  While I have done some fairly complicated things with TeX macros, I usually try to keep things simple.  Generally speaking, if you've got a lot of \expandafters and \noexpands, that's a sign that there might be a better solution for what you want to do, possibly by using some other tool instead of or in addition to TeX. For example, for complex things involving rules and positioning text, it's probably easier to write it in MetaPost and include the TeX text in labels.  Then, you can include the resulting EPS (or PDF or JPEG ...) file in your document.

You can do a lot of tricky things with macros but I usually just want to get my document finished.  If you like puzzles, it can be an interesting challenge (and/or maddeningly frustrating) to try to solve a problem by means of TeX alone.

I do recommend learning about boxes and glue, which are of great practical importance.  I use the technique of boxes of zero dimension with infinite glue, which makes it possible to place anything you want anywhere you want on a page, very often.

> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 11. Oktober 2023 um 15:59 Uhr
> Von: terry.s at Safe-mail.net
> An: tex-eplain at tug.org
> Betreff: [tex-eplain] Thank you Laurence for glyph_test example; eplain won't load compatible packages