[tex-k] .web and .ch file question

[Olaf Weber]

Hartmut Henkel writes:

> Hi TeX fans,
> just wondering why in TeX source distros always .web and intermediate
> .ch files are mangled, while no all-containing .web file ever is
> generated. E. g. if one wants to look into the _complete_ web-file, one
> has to invent another name, e. g. _pdftex.web, and then type:

> tie -m _pdftex.web pdftex.web pdftex.ch

Basically, in cases like this pdftex.web is the "pristine" file, with
pdftex.ch the changes needed to tailor it to the web2c distribution.

People may care about these things if (for example) they use web2c as
the development platform for programs that have to compiled in other
distributions as well.  (The web2c interface isn't proper Pascal, for
starters.)

In some cases the licenses of the web files also enter into this; we
have to carry all the machinery in any case, so it is only a small
additional effort to things like this.

> Always carry the .ch along, also for weaving, tedious.

Make automates tedium.

-- 
Olaf Weber

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