[XeTeX] "Minimalist" TeX?

[Khaled Hosny]

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 09:38:58PM -0700, C Y wrote:
> I have compiled xetex from the latest Git sources on sourceforge, and the build
> appears to have been successful.
> 
> Does the sourceforge Git repo of xetex produce a working (albeit minimal) TeX
> once compilation is complete?  (It didn't seem to in my quick test, but it's
> quite possible I didn't do something right environment wise...)  If not, is
> there documentation anywhere of what constitutes the minimal set of files that
> will allow an average LaTeX document to be typeset?
> 
> My interest is in building a "Minimalist" subset of TeX in situations where a
> system installation isn't present, but I've not had much luck locating
> documentation describing what constitutes a minimal-yet-functional subset of
> the TeX Live distribution.  Has anybody documented such a subset?

It depends on how minimal you want it, plain only? base LaTeX? extra
packages?

Regards,
 Khaled