[tex-live] [dgc@ccrwest.org: [texhax] inconsistency between pdftex and tex]

[Thomas Esser]

> We should make pdftex, at least in tex live if not in the original
> distribution, understand %& by default, I think.

$ head -2 story.tex
%&tex
\hrule

$ KPATHSEA_DEBUG=4 /t/texlive/Master/bin/i386-linux/pdftex story
..
kdebug:fopen(/t/texlive/Master/texmf-var/web2c/tex.fmt, rb) => 0x83ccfc0
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
kdebug:fclose(0x83ccfc0) => 0

/t/texlive is the path to my local perforce tree of TeX Live, so
I think that your request is already reality.

> Although that won't help with the problem as stated, since a first line
> of %&latex will read latex.fmt, not pdflatex.fmt.  Seems like it would

Right, we have no concept of getting the right spot in the two-dimensional
field of engine/macro-package. Prepending pdf might be the right thing
for pdftex, be we rely on some convention here and such things can
easily fail.

> Maybe we should just forget about %& altogether?

I am unsure if there is some real use for this feature. I know that it is
used for the metapost -> tex (resp. latex) communication. But, is it
useful for anything else in real life?

Thomas