From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@9fans.net
From: Mauricio CA <mauricio.antunes@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:34:17 +0000
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Subject: Re: [9fans] [RFC] fonts and unicode/utf [TeX]
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> Since TeX is "8 bits", the tex file must have characters encoded in
> 8 bits, with the not control positions of the first half being, after
> perhaps mapping defined at compile time (can be remapped at user level
> but with apparently "strange" macro commands), conforming to ASCII---
> used as litterals but also for the primitives.

Is it possible to change the representation of a character from an 8 bits
char to, say, a 32 bits integer? If those integers are still mapped to
the existing 8 bits font metrics, wouldn't the basic engine be kept the
same? This probably means extending the syntax of a few control sequences
denoting characters, though.

Best,
Maurício