Re: What should I learn?

[Mauricio <briqueabraque@yahoo.com>]

> 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 :)

I think I want to have enough available libraries so
that I could write small programs to generate documents.
Most of the time I would probably insert the text in
the source code, or create specialized programs that
could deal with specific series of documents (I remember
reading in an interview with Donald Knuth that this is
the way TeX was supposed to be used when it was designed.)

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...

Best,
Maurício

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