From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: tlaronde@polynum.com Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:23:16 +0200 To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: <20100426162316.GA15354@polynum.com> References: <20100426082945.GA12445@polynum.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Subject: Re: [9fans] TeX: need feedback Topicbox-Message-UUID: 0e7a29b0-ead6-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 11:47:50AM -0400, John Floren wrote: > > TeX installed ok, but I couldn't get LaTeX installed; I attempted to > follow the instructions in your README, but there was no indication > that anything actually worked. Have you installed it on a Plan 9 > system? The instructions seemed a lot more Linux-oriented than Plan 9. I don't use LaTeX, so I have simply looked in the old teTeX package installed on my NetBSD, and tested there if I was able to dump the format with kerTeX. It worked. If you dump the format, afterwards when invoking latex(1), you must set the TEXINPUTS and TEXFONTS with the directories where live the latex data (there may be several directories and subdirectories; with GPL web2c, one must look in the "texmf.cnf"). If the always "new" version of LaTeX can not be dumped (because it needs more capacities); or if it is able to dump but when loading some extensions, it cries "capacities exceeded", then I will have to increase some sizes in the change file. The format I dumped was 5 years old but it was far from overloading the capacities. For what I know, nothing should prevent the use of LaTeX: it is just a matter of paths (hence the description of the environment variables). Incidentally, one could perhaps ask the latex.org to try kerTeX and to tell what to do; or ask if a Knuth's version of TeX, with capacities extended, can be used with LaTeX or if they need to change something in the program. (Even in this latter case, nothing prevent using kertex_M and kertex_T, but adjust the change file for tex; the hard part was the engineering, not adjusting.) But since I don't use LaTeX, I can not tell more and don't plan to look more deeply. What's why I do need feedback. If there is something missing in the "kernel" (kerTeX) preventing absolutely the use of LaTeX (I verified mainly that the "big" default format was enough to dump latex), I will modify it. But a "package" must use the "kernel"; and not the other way around. I use my own set of macros---mistex...---and I have even not made something special in kerTeX for it. So for others...;) My view is: there is the METAFONT/TeX kernel, conform to Knuth's Digital Typography but with size increased (by default). And using this framework, one can use whatever set of macros one wants simply by dumping the format and adjusting the paths. -- Thierry Laronde http://www.kergis.com/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C