Re: What should I learn?

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Mauricio wrote:
>> Mauricio wrote:
>>
>>> Original Tex is not an option, since PDF, today's font formats
>>> (and Unicode) and many algorithms didn't exist when Knuth decided
>>> no features would be added anymore. Maybe I should hack the source
>>> code of pdftex or luatex?  I can try that, but that's going to be
>>> hard work and I would like to know how far I can get before
>>> starting, or if there are easier options (like libraries to write
>>> PDF and read OpenType and books or example code of typesetting
>>> algorithms).
>> you want to writ ea full blown macro package with advanced font support 
>> etc etc? well, it will take you a couple of man-years
>>
> 
> I'll never use macros, whatever the task is :)

well, for most users a macro is just an abstraction doing something 
typographically meaningfull; in that sense it's not much different from 
a library where you use some function call to achieve the same

no matter what programming tools you use, the problem remains the same 
... if for instance you want to deal with fonts in a systematic way you 
have to program that (and there are several approaches for organizing 
fonts); in the end you end up with much macro code, haskell code, c 
code, whatever code, either ot not hidden

what system you use or build depend on what you need to typeset, for 
instance if you need to implement a specific design (which changes over 
time and therefore it should be easy to change your code) that is used 
to process thousands of documents codes in a special way ...

> If that's not possible today, maybe I could at least
> write a nice library of general purpose typesetting
> algorithms that someone could use in the future to do
> what I want. Although I don't think giants should be on
> top of dwarfs...

... general purpose might not be what most users want; eventually luatex 
will provide many typesetting library components, but in themselves they 
are rather useless, as it's the integration that makes it useable

Hans

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